YuGiOh: Essence Fusion
by Celeste5502
Summary: A psychotic genius obsessed with hybrid creation dreams of using his inventions to achieve domination; inadvertently caught up in one of his experiments, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea and Kaiba must stop the madman before it's too late...
1. Chapter One: Progression of a Psycho

**Author's Note: **For those who have been reading this story since the beginning, there's no need to reread these chapters once again. Since I didn't spend as much time on these earlier chapters when I first wrote them, I've just changed a few words and done some revisions that better fit within the story line; the story itself remains the same.

**Chapter One: Progression of a Psycho**

The telephone's persistent ringing brought Seto Kaiba out of his work; he glanced away from the various spreadsheets and graphs scattered across his computer screen to shoot a glare at the annoying device. All of his workers should have known better than to disturb him while in the midst of critical corporate labor; either this was a matter of life and death, or someone was about to become an ex-employee of Kaiba Corp. He picked up the receiver and snapped, "What is it?"

"S-sir?" Taken aback by his angry tone, the nervous secretary stammered into the phone, "I apologize for disturbing you, b-but the police are here to see you."

"I see." The anger slightly slid out of Kaiba's voice, but he still maintained the cool, professional disposition he was well-known for. "And what's their business here?"

After a short pause with only soft muttering coming through the receiver, the secretary replied: "They want to talk to you about a former employee of yours; a Dr. Julian Moreau?"

Kaiba's blue eyes narrowed. "Send them up to my office."

"Right away, sir."

He smacked the receiver back into its cradle and clasped his hands together. He couldn't bring his attention back to the glowing screen; all focus on work had been lost to the mere thought of that madman.

Dr. Julian Moreau had been an original employee under the previous Kaiba Corp, one of Gozaburo Kaiba's top designers of warfare weapons and machinery with extensive biological and genetic knowledge that maximized his designs' effectiveness. After Kaiba had become CEO of Kaiba Corp, Moreau had been one of the few who stayed with the new corporation, pledging his loyalty to Gozaburo's stepson and devoting himself entirely to the research and design of game systems.

While Moreau began as an exceptional employee, contributing significantly to the development of the Duel Disk prototypes, his activities outside of Kaiba Corp gaming development gradually fell under the CEO's suspicion. More and more frequently, the doctor would spend his spare time on his computer or at an isolated desk in a research area corner, working on secretive projects which he immediately minimized and closed or stuffed into his lab coat's pockets upon merely sensing a coworker's presence. Eventually, work on his covert operations had exceeded his time spent on Kaiba Corp's projects; his fascination with his private research, it seemed, had grown into an obsession.

Kaiba had finally had enough of the man wasting his work hours on doing personal research; late into one night a year ago, after Moreau had finally returned home, he'd taken the man's laptop and hacked into its heavily guarded files to see what the doctor thought was more important than contributing to the corporation. The glimpse into Moreau's files started out innocently enough, with scientific notes and graphs on the biology and genetics behind cross-breeding animals and the formation of human genes, but gradually grew into a glance inside the mental workings of a psychopath. From cross-breeding Moreau had moved on to gruesome genetic splicing experimentation with various animals stolen from Domino's streets. Dozens of reports and vivid photographs depicted the resulting unearthly creatures; Kaiba distinctly remembered seeing the stunning x-rays and photos of a common-day calico housecat with a hawk's hooked beak in place of its snout and grey-feathered wings protruding from the fur on its back.

When he'd read the final line in the notes for Moreau's latest project, _'Splicing of homo sapiens with animal genes appears ready to commence,' _he didn't hesitate to call the police. They'd rushed to Moreau's home as quickly as they could, but the doctor had disappeared by the time they'd arrived. Moreau's personal files on his Kaiba Corp computer, the CEO had discovered afterwards, had been attached to a backup system which copied and sent them to Moreau's home laptop each time they were opened for viewing. When the files had suddenly arrived, he must have known his game was up and fled.

In the cellar of Moreau's house, behind a bolted iron door, the police discovered the remnants of Moreau's bio-laboratory. Most of the file cabinets and desk drawers had been emptied of their contents and the computer systems irreparably damaged, but the doctor had left behind one clue of his inhumane activities: Amongst metal tables topped with cages filled with fur and feathers was the corpse of a frail young woman, bound to a medical bed by iron chains. She'd been somewhat beautiful when she was alive, with unkempt scarlet hair and emerald green eyes, but attention was drawn now to her 'unusual' characteristics: furry black cat ears perched atop her head, a black tail protruding from her lower back, sharpened claws in place of fingernails. Further investigation found that she was a member of Domino's homeless; kidnapped for Moreau's sick projects, the shock and pain of the experiments he'd run on her had ultimately destroyed her malnourished form.

Kaiba snarled at the thought of the horrendous photographs of Moreau's feline-human hybrid the investigators had shown him; because of that one madman's lab work, the entirety of the Kaiba Corporation had been placed under stifling investigation and, if the police hadn't hushed up any revelation of the inhumanity to the public, would probably never have recovered from such a tarnish to its reputation. He didn't care what sort of means anyone had to resort to; he wanted that damn bastard captured, dead or alive.

A sharp rapping came from behind the office door.

"Enter."

The door opened and a man and woman entered the room, displaying gold police shields on their belts. Kaiba distinctly remembered them as the ones who'd interrogated him about the doctor and what he knew of his workings in the original investigation. Both wore seemingly blank looks on their faces, but he could tell from the slight narrowing of their eyes that they weren't too pleased to see him again.

"Mr. Kaiba," spoke the male detective, "you remember us, Detectives Wolff and Gillian, I assume?"

"Clearly."

"Well, Mr. Kaiba," the woman, Gillian, continued for her partner, "you know why we're here."

"Yes, although I hope you don't intend to just dig up more memories about that psychopath Moreau."

Wolff simply pulled a manila folder out of his jacket and slapped it onto Kaiba's desk, sending loose slips of papers flying to the floor. "Detectives in the nearby town of Kosaka recently conducted an investigation on an electronics repair shop owned by one Jules Morrington. Neighbors and passerby were complaining with increasing frequency about disturbing noises coming from vicinity, described as shrieks from torture subjection emitted by both animals and humans. When police raided the shop on a night of particularly disturbing screams, they discovered a bio-laboratory in the basement, and these particular specimens."

Kaiba opened the folder and pulled out a small stack of instant photographs. His eyes widened as he started flipping through the horribly colorful images, each one more grotesque and shocking than the last. The 'specimens' appeared to be hospitalized humans at passing glance, clad in torn paper gowns stained with dried brown blood, but closer inspection revealed animal-like limbs protruding from the corpses. One was clamped by her wrists and ankles to a stone floor atop white dove's wings on her back, a slit of crimson running along her neck; another with brown-furred dog ears and a bushy tail had been strangled by an iron collar snapped onto his neck, his tongue lolled out the side of his snout; a third lay in a puddle of water that slid off her soaked form, the slits of gills barely visible on her neck and sprinklings of scales atop her hands and feet.

"You notice that based on their hybrid appearances the specimens seem similar to the work of Dr. Julian Moreau, I assume." Gillian remarked as Kaiba went through the photographs. "We have strong reason to believe, therefore, that Jules Morrington and the doctor are one and the same."

"You don't actually have him in custody, though," Kaiba glanced up from the photos into the detectives' blank eyes. "Otherwise you wouldn't be here, wasting my time."

"Mr. Kaiba, we came to you because we thought you should be aware that Moreau may be contacting you soon," Wolff replied coolly.

"And exactly what reason would Moreau have for contacting the Kaiba Corporation when he's too deeply involved in his own psychopathic experiments?"

Wolff reached back into his jacket pocket and pulled out another manila folder, this one marked in bold black letters with the words **Top Secret. **Holding it out to the CEO, he simply replied, "Look at the final photograph, Mr. Kaiba."

Kaiba opened the second folder, expecting to see a more dangerous specimen from Moreau's grotesque splicing experiments, a human-tiger or human-shark hybrid, maybe. When his blue eyes fell upon the picture taped to its inside, however, he could hardly contain the disbelief that jolted throughout his body.

This specimen, a male, was different from the rest; one could already tell from the fact that it had been locked inside of what appeared to be a separate cell composed entirely of electrical barbed wire. A glistening white substance shone in place of his skin, cracked circles running up and down the arms and legs like poorly-formed scales. Large wings made out of the same glittering 'skin' were partially opened on the creature's back, enfolding his body in a shimmering cloak. Jagged golden crystals protruded through its fingers; two more sunk into its forehead for horns, and two tiny rows of fangs glittered inside a half-open mouth.

"This specimen…" After eying Moreau's creation for a few more moments, Kaiba wordlessly opened a drawer to the side of his desk and pulled out his silver briefcase, flipping it open to reveal almost the entirety of his deck—his precious trio of Blue Eyes White Dragons was still safely tucked inside his sleeveless white trench-coat, of course. He sifted through the stacks of cards until he came across the particular one he'd been searching for and laid it down beside the photograph.

The card was a Monster called _Hyozanryu, _or simply _Diamond Dragon_; it was a pretty powerful card for usage in a duel, with 2100 attack points and 2800 defense points, but still merely complement for his coveted Blue Eyes. What struck Kaiba now, however, was the similarity between the monster and Moreau's specimen: same shimmering white skin with cracked scales, same crystalline claws and horns of gold, same miniscule rows of pointed teeth.

"Yes, a fellow detective discovered the similarity between that monster and this experiment," Gillian nodded. "Bit of a Duel Monsters fan himself,"

"How the hell would Moreau be able to combine a human's genes with the ones of a creature that doesn't even exist?!" Kaiba snapped.

"Dr. Moreau has apparently moved on from genetic splicing," the female detective explained. "The papers from the doctor's lab are currently locked up in evidence, but a local department of scientists was given a quick chance to look through them beforehand. They believe Moreau had been conducting research into a method of creating hybrids between humans and creatures not even in existence, with portrayals of their likenesses serving as a key element in its functioning. As CEO of a gaming corporation that mainly focuses on the Duel Monsters game, we have high reason to believe that Moreau may soon make an attempt to obtain some of your strongest cards for his experiments—and if it becomes necessary, he may use brute force to do so."

"I see." Although Kaiba's face remained calm, his hands slightly clenched with a strange mixture of anger and pleasure. _As soon as this meeting is over I'm calling for an immediate increase in security detail throughout the entire building; if that psychopath is even considering a return to Kaiba Corp, I'll make sure he regrets the decision for the rest of his asylum-bound life. _"What exactly did he call this new project?"

"Hoping the name itself will grant insight into what Moreau's project is?" Wolff cocked one eyebrow. "Not to cast doubt on your abilities, Mr. Kaiba, but not even our group of scientists had enough time to find a reasonable explanation for—"

"The project's name," Kaiba interrupted.

Wolff finally let a glare cross his face before curtly replying, "Project Essence…"


	2. Chapter Two: Monsters and Creatures

**Chapter Two: Monsters and Creatures**

"Hey, Joey, make your move already!"

Joey shot Tristan an angry look. "Shaddup; I'm just tryin' ta figure out what move ta make!"

"C'mon, that's easy: Make the one that'll make your loss look the least pathetic."

"You win a duel for once; then you can talk."

Yugi and Téa glanced at each other with knowing grins; in the corner of his mind's eye, Yugi saw Pharaoh give off a small smirk as well with regards to their friends' antics. Tonight everyone had gotten together at Yugi's home to celebrate the glorious beginning of the summer holidays. Grandpa had been kind enough to order a pizza, desserts, and a few DVDs to keep the four out of his hair while he cleaned the Game Shop and stocked it for the next day. Yugi and Joey were currently in the midst of a duel while Tristan and Téa looked on; from the long time that Joey had been staring at his hand, it was clear that his loss seemed inevitable.

"Mmm…okay, got it!" Joey pulled out a card from his hand, flipping it onto the coffee table serving as a temporary duel area. "Since I've got Masaki the Legendary Warrior and Flame Manipulator out, I can use the magic card Polymerization to sacrifice those two..." He picked up the two Monsters on his side of the field and promptly placed them into his graveyard, "…so I can summon THIS!"

He grinned triumphantly as he smacked the card of the muscular warrior in orange and blue onto the field. "Flame Swordsman, in attack mode!" He leaned back and placed both hands behind his head. "Your move, King of Games!"

"Okay, if you insist," Yugi smiled. "I'll sacrifice Celtic Guardian and Mystical Elf…" He took his own two monsters and put them into his graveyard, "…and I'll summon this." He pulled one card out of his hand and turned it around to show Joey the monster clad in violet. "Dark Magician, attack mode."

Joey stared in disbelief, almost falling in shock onto the living room carpet.

"And since I'll have it attack, that means your Flame Swordsman is sent to the graveyard."

Sulking, Joey picked up the Flame Swordsman from the field. Tristan sympathetically placed one hand onto his shoulder. "Look on the bright side, Joey-you've lost so many times already, another defeat won't be a major blow to your record."

"Shut your trap, ya big-"

Joey's further spray of insults was interrupted by a shattering of glass coming from the Game Shop. The four glanced up in shock towards the living room doorway. "Grandpa?"

The authoritative voice of the Pharaoh spoke in his mind, warning clear in his undertone: _Yugi, I just sensed an evil presence within the Game Shop. It's gone now, but it was a strikingly powerful force…_

Yugi dropped his hand onto the coffee table and dashed from the living room to the Game Shop, his three friends close behind. Inside, the four were greeted by the cool nighttime breeze blowing through the shop's broken windows. Grandpa lay moaning on the tiled floor amongst scattered cards, fallen from the recently opened boxes now lying on their sides on the checkout counter.

"Grandpa!" Horrified, Yugi knelt down by his grandfather's body and saw a small trickle of crimson running down his cheek where a neat row of gashes had appeared. "What happened?"

"Yugi…" Grandpa groaned softly, "something…a kind of creature just burst in here; I don't know what on earth it was…like some kind of half-human, half-beast…"

The four friends glanced at one another in astonishment. Their faces all bore the same silent question: _Half-human, half-beast?_

Yugi took one of Grandpa's hands into his own; Joey knelt down and took the other, gently helping his friend help his grandfather back onto his feet. He wobbled before gaining just a slightly steady stance, shaken badly by the beast's surprise attack.

"Grandpa, do you know why this…thing came?"

Grandpa raised a shaking finger towards a shattered display case, slivers of glass shining from their spot on a red cushion. "It swiped my Blue Eyes White Dragon card…said something about how it would do for Moreau's revenge against that damn Kaiba Corp whistleblower…"

"Geez, just how many people can Rich Boy's company tick off that much?" Joey said disgustedly.

Grandpa started shuffling towards the shop's door, but Yugi quickly reached out and gripped his arm to stop him. "Grandpa, you're hurt. You stay here and we'll go see if that thief comes to Kaiba Corp tonight."

Grandpa opened his mouth in protest, but he suddenly winced and knelt on one leg towards the ground. "Ah, my leg…blast, must have twisted it when that creature shoved me…"

Yugi knelt down and again helped his grandpa stand up. "C'mon, Grandpa; we'll help you back into the house. You can rest while we go to Kaiba Corp."

"All right…" Grandpa murmured in assent. "You kids be careful, though. That creature's power…I've never seen anything like it…it was too unreal…"

* * *

Kaiba paused his furious typing at his keyboard for a quick moment to glance in the screen's corner at its digital clock. _Ten minutes to eleven. If that asylum-bound freak decides to come tonight, then he'll be here soon._

He smiled smugly as he went back to typing various figures into the spreadsheet covering his screen. Almost immediately after the detectives had left, he'd made a call to the Kaiba Corp security department to issue specialized commands in preparation for Moreau's upcoming 'visit.' Every last available guard would be on duty throughout the entirety of the night, the majority posted at the front and back entrances to the building, and the rest along the corridor leading to his office. One guard had also been called up to his office; Kaiba had given him the briefcase filled with his deck, including the three Blue Eyes White Dragons which he'd carefully placed atop the other stacks before snapping the case shut, and ordered him to lock it inside of one of the many security boxes within the ground floor's heavily guarded walk-in safe. If Moreau was in need of 'experimental equipment,' he certainly wasn't going to get it from him.

Too, once all security orders had been issued, he'd made another phone call; this one was to Mokuba, asking him to come up to his office before the guard came for his deck. He wanted to tell his little brother in person that he needed to return to their house for the night. Mokuba had hesitated for quite some time before reluctantly agreeing to obey his wishes, though his opal-colored eyes were filled with unspoken concern. He hated that Mokuba was probably lying awake in bed right now, worrying about whatever event was happening at Kaiba Corp that his brother was keeping him away from, but he wasn't going to leave an opportunity open for Moreau to make Mokuba one of his freakish experiments. This was only going to be between him and the elder Kaiba brother.

After putting a few more figures into the spreadsheet, he snuck another glance at the computer's clock. Only one minute to eleven; not exactly the infamous 'witching hour,' but late enough for Moreau to move under the guise of nighttime and hone in on the one who'd discovered his disturbing 'hobby.'

In the blink of an eye, the computer clock changed from 10:59 to 11:00 PM.

_Ding. _The faint bell announced the elevator's arrival at the end of the corridor. Seconds later, a seeming murmur of animal-like snarling reached his ears. Rapid gunshots suddenly began to fire from all ends of the hallway; one guard's voice cried over the hail of bullets: "What the hell is that thing?!"

Kaiba immediately stood up from his desk. _So, you came after all, Moreau, _he sneered._ I hope you and your creatures enjoy the 'welcome' I set up for you._

As gunshots continued to bang throughout the outside corridor, accompanied by an occasional scream, Kaiba opened his top desk drawer and reached inside. Hidden in the very back was a handgun of his own, stowed away just in case meetings with clients turned nasty or one of his rivals in the gaming world attempted to pull some sort of stunt. Now it could serve as means of last defense if, heaven forbid, Moreau and his freaks of nature made it into his office after all.

As his hand wrapped around the handle, a deafening _crash _came from directly behind him; he instinctively raised his free hand over his head to shield himself as shards of glass from his office window rained down on his back. He yanked the handgun out of the drawer, but before he could twist around and face the surprise attacker, it placed what felt like a large, furry paw onto the back of his head and slammed it down on his desk.

Bursts of dazed stars flashed before his eyes, fading away into the dark mahogany wood. He wildly waved his handgun around, firing one bullet as a warning shot. The unseen assailant hissed at him in protest; before he could let another bullet fly, he felt four sharp pinpricks dig into his hand, followed immediately by the needle-like objects quickly dragging across it.

Kaiba gnashed his teeth together as shooting pain tore through his hand; his grip on the handgun loosened with the sharp sensation, and it dropped to the carpeted floor with a soft _thud_.

A feminine voice hissed with an underlying grin into his ear: "If you don't want me to run those across your throat next, you'll put both hands behind your back where I can hold them. And don't bother calling your guards; Plato's taken 'good care' of them by now."

Her chilling comment brought his attention back to the hallway; he realized that the ringing gunshots had ceased, and only sounds of painful moaning were drifting under his doorway. _Damnit!_

With an angry snarl, he shifted both hands behind his back, clutching them into defiant fists. The assailant slid her grip around his head to clutch at his dark-brown hair and forcefully yanked him up from his desk; as he slightly winced with pain, the furry paw was lifted from his head and slid down to the other one to get a crushing grip on his wrists. Clenched in her surprisingly strong grasp, he had no chance of fighting back.

"Nikki?" A disgustingly familiar voice slithered into his office from behind the closed door. "Have you got him?"

"Yes, master. Feel free to enter."

The office doorway suddenly burst off its hinges and crashed onto the floor, sending splinters of wood flying across the room. A masculine creature leapt into the room from the door frame and greeted Kaiba with a fang-bearing sneer. Obviously it was one of Moreau's specimen; two snow-white wolf's ears protruded from the midst of his messy brown locks, similarly furry paws with amber-colored claws slightly shimmered where his hands should have been, and a puffy white tail slinked from side to side on his lower back.

The creature stood up and stepped aside to let someone else enter the room. Kaiba narrowed his eyes into an icy glare at the third intruder; passing time had etched a few wrinkles into his face and pulled back a bit on his hairline, but there was no mistaking the man with cool grey eyes that shone with a crazed gleam from a face covered with an ashen beard, especially when he wore the same white lab coat he'd worn as a Kaiba Corp personnel. Clutched in his hand was what appeared to be a silver rifle that shimmered in the dimness of the hall light.

"Seto Kaiba," Dr. Moreau sneered. "Wonderful to see you again; it's been so long since our last meeting. Tell me, how does it feel to be the one on the receiving end of an attack? I do hope it somewhat humbles your rather oversized ego."

"Those could have been brave words coming from you," Kaiba replied. "Why don't you tell your freak show to get out so you can actually prove you're not the spineless coward you've always been?"

Moreau took his rifle into both hands, aiming the barrel straight at Kaiba's chest. "I suggest you keep your mouth shut, Seto Kaiba; don't you want to savor your final moments before becoming my latest specimen?"


	3. Chapter Three: A Burst of White

**Chapter Three: A Burst of White**

Four shadowed figures darted down the main street of Downtown Domino, their path illuminated only by the faint glow of streetlamps and the sliver of the moon in the sky. The blue glass dome atop the Kaiba Corp building towered over the city's silver skyscrapers, serving as the beacon which directed them in their dash to the game company's office.

Outside of Kaiba Corp's main entrance, they were greeted with the sight of security guards sprawled on the ground, their handguns flung far out of their reach. Nasty gashes ripped across their faces and chests, spilling scarlet streams onto the sidewalk where they lay.

Side-stepping the injured guards, the group walked into the Kaiba Corp building. A pink-haired secretary slowly rose up from behind the front desk, one hand clutched to her neck, her frightened eyes staring cautiously at the small group of teens. Only the sight of the King of Games himself gave her slight relief.

Yugi stepped up to the secretary and murmured, "Some kind of creature passed through here recently, didn't it?"

She gave a quivering nod in response. "It _looked _human enough, but…th-those claws and fangs…"

"Where did it go?"

She pointed down the corridor beyond, lined on each side with elevators to the upper offices and underground labs. "It went with one other man that had s-some kind of weird weapon t-to Mr. Kaiba's office itself…" She lowered her hand, revealing tiny pinpricks where claws had been placed in threat of slashing across her neck. "Th-they forced me to tell them exactly where it was located…top floor, down the hall, to your right…d-dear God…"

As she slumped into her swivel chair in a faint, the four shot past the front desk and straight up to one of the elevators. Yugi pushed the 'up' button impatiently until the doors finally opened.

The long ride up to the CEO's office gave them just enough time to plan their strategy. "Here's what I think: the second these doors open again, we run out chargin' and shock the freak so much that it never knows what hit it!" Joey pounded one fist into his palm.

"How do you know you'd be able to beat it that easily?" Téa cried, ever the voice of reason. "You've seen what it's able to do! If it slashed you with those claws, you'd just be charging right to your death!"

"Well, what else do we have ta take it down with?! We've got nothin' on us!"

As the two bickered, Yugi absentmindedly twirled his treasured Dark Magician card between his fingers, deep in thought about a plan of attack. He'd rushed out of the Game Shop in such a hurry that he'd forgotten to return it to his deck.

Glancing down at the monster, he was suddenly struck with an idea. He slid the card into his jeans pocket, then quickly slung his tan backpack off his shoulders; his three friends watched in disbelief as he pulled out the Duel Disk he constantly carried around.

"Maybe we don't have actual powers ourselves, but Duel Monsters definitely give off an appearance of strength, even if they are holograms," he explained to his confused friends as he snapped the disk onto his wrist. "I bet that if we summon whatever cards we have before the creature, it could be enough to scare it off."

"Aw, crud…" Joey slapped one hand to his forehead. "I left my whole deck back at your place!"

"Then what's that in your hand?" Téa pointed at one card gripped by the tips of his fingers.

Joey glanced down at the card in shock. "Heh?" He raised the card up to his face; the glare of the Flame Swordsman stared back at him. "Oh. Guess I forgot ta put it down before this whole fiasco started. 'Least he can show this freak who's boss."

"Keep it close at hand until we need it." Yugi glanced back towards the violet-cloaked magician card peeking out of his pocket and murmured, "I hope that two monsters are enough to freak that creature out."

"Three would be better." Tristan reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a card featuring a muscular man with a crew cut carrying a wide assortment of weaponry. "Cyber Commander can handle it."

"Oh, c'mon—that card's so weak it's not even funny!" Joey pointed tellingly at its mere 750 attack points.

"Hey, it's my favorite and it's only for show here!" Tristan snapped.

"Good thing, 'cause otherwise it'd be destroyed in seconds."

"Why you-"

While Joey and Tristan had their fill of another heated argument, Yugi glanced at Téa and asked, "You wouldn't by chance have any cards on you, would you?"

A slight blush rose to Téa's cheeks. "Well…I do have a couple, a kind of matching set…" She sheepishly reached into her jacket and pulled out three cards: Shining Friendship, a round, green fairy with angelic gold wings; Elf's Light, a magic card featuring rims of light bursting forth from a fairy's palm; and a second magic card, Silver Bow and Arrow. "I used this combo in my duel with Mai, remember? It…reminds me of the bond between the four of us…" A wan smile crept onto her face. "Sorry that it won't exactly be a threatening monster…"

"That's all right; with Cyber Commander it can be part of our backup plan, if we need one."

As they waited for the elevator to reach its destination, Pharaoh spoke from the recesses of Yugi's mind: _Yugi, __I can sense that we're nearing the evil that attacked the Game Shop. But_ _it's accompanied by a much greater power now…you must be careful, Yugi; even I am uncertain what it's capable of…_

* * *

"How exactly do you propose to make me one of your freakish specimen, Moreau?" Kaiba sneered at the doctor. "You're not hoping to do so with that toy in your hands, I hope."

"Now, now, Seto Kaiba, let's not be quick to judge items solely based on appearances." Moreau lovingly stroked the barrel of his silver rifle. "This beautiful device has more power than even you could comprehend. Granted, when simply used against a designated target, it does only serve as an ordinary ray-gun emitting energy beams…" He grinned with insane delight as he continued: "But combine it with a representation of any Duel Monster, and it becomes my ultimate fusion device! I can create culminations of perfection; the human being, already the most beautiful creature in existence, combined with the glorious traits of a strong, swift or brilliant beast…imagine the power it will have!"

Kaiba let out a small laugh. "Is this how you plan to have your revenge? By boring me with your rants of psychotic glory?"

"What you call 'psychotic,' I call 'the next step in human evolution,' Seto Kaiba," Moreau replied matter-of-factly. "Since you still can't seem to see my experiments for what they are, however, I believe I'll place you through the torture I've wanted to inflict for so long by forcing you to become one of my 'freakish specimen.' And I know exactly which card to fuse _you_ with, Seto Kaiba." He paused for a triumphant finish: "_Your own treasured Blue Eyes White Dragon!"_

"Your plan is flawed, Moreau. You're acting on the assumption that I actually have my Blue Eyes White Dragon cards on me. But the police came by earlier today; they told me about your lab in Kosaka and the human-monster fusion you left back there. I thought you might show your face around Kaiba Corp soon, so I prepared for your 'visit.'" Kaiba gave the doctor a smug smile. "My deck is nowhere on my person, Moreau. Good luck trying to find another Blue Eyes White Dragon."

Moreau simply turned to the human-wolf creature called Plato and asked, "You did obtain the object I requested you get for me, correct?"

"Yes, master." Plato reached into the pocket of the white jacket he wore and pulled out what Kaiba could see was a damaged Duel Monster card, pieces of tape wrapped around its torn center. Getting a firmer grip on his rifle with one hand, Moreau reached out with the other and took the card between his fingers. "You've underestimated me, Seto Kaiba," he grinned triumphantly. He flipped the card around to reveal its monster.

For the first time, Kaiba's eyes just slightly widened with fear. It was the fourth Blue Eyes White Dragon in existence, the one that belonged to Yugi Muto's old man. He'd torn the card himself straight down the center, right before Yugi had stolen his title as King of Games.

"Granted, it's not exactly in the best condition," Moreau turned the card back around and smiled at the shining white dragon, "but it's the essence beyond the representation that matters, not its card's appearance."

"What the hell do you mean by 'its essence'?!"

Moreau gave him a small sneer. "You're supposed to be a genius, Seto Kaiba; figure it out yourself."

He flung the card forward, straight into the rifle's path, and pulled the trigger.

_Click._

Kaiba's assailant released her furry grip as the world around him became blindingly bright. He let out an ear-splitting scream of pain; not since the end of his first duel with Yugi Muto had he felt such a horrific sensation tearing at the very fabric of his body. For just a brief moment, the Blue Eyes White Dragon card appeared out of the unnatural light; then, it suddenly burst into thousands of shimmering sparks that melded seamlessly into the shining world he'd been thrust into.

_Damn…_It was his final thought before everything was shrouded in darkness.

* * *

As the elevator doors slid open with a soft _ding, _the group of friends received the shocking greeting of an anguished yell, accompanied by a shining light blazing through an open doorway down the hall. Without hesitation, the four ran out of the elevator and down the hall to the shimmering light, taking care to side-step the unconscious security guards who littered the hallway.

As the light gradually subsided, Yugi began to make out three figures standing in the room, with a fourth slumped over the office desk. The one standing before the doorway had his back to the group, but he could see that the man wore a scientist's white coat and held some sort of silver rifle in his hands. The other two standing figures appeared relatively human at a passing glance, but a closer look revealed bizarre, beast-like appearances: one had white wolf's ears perched atop his head, white paws with amber claws in place of hands, and a fluffy white tail that twitched on his lower back; the other had floppy lilac-furred ears peeking out from wavy blonde tresses that drooped down to her shoulders, matching lilac paws with golden claws on both her hands and feet, and a pair of golden, dragonfly-like wings protruding from her back.

The figure slumped over the desk was a young man with dark brown hair, dressed in what appeared to be a sleeveless white trench-coat.

"Kaiba?"

At Yugi's cry of surprise, the man in the lab coat twisted around. He stared at the four teenage kids crowded around the office doorway with eerie grey eyes; Yugi slightly recoiled from what looked to him like a familiar gleam of insanity.

"Where did you four come from?" he sneered.

Gathering his courage for his grandfather's sake, Yugi stepped into the room and replied, "We have reason to believe that one of the…" He paused, struggling for a way to refer to the creatures that wouldn't tick them off, "…others in this room came to my grandfather's Game Shop tonight and stole his Blue Eyes White Dragon card."

"Oh yes, that was me," the human-wolf being raised a paw. "You are his grandson, I can tell. He had that exact same scared look in his eyes when I jumped him at the Game Shop."

Yugi narrowed his eyes at the wolf-man. "Where did you put Grandpa's card?"

"You might as well forget about it, little boy," Lab Coat smirked, glancing back at the unconscious CEO. "Just go back home and tell the old coot that his card went towards a good cause."

"Good cause, my ass!" Joey snapped. "Give that Blue Eyes White Dragon back!"

"I just can't," Lab Coat shrugged. "And I assure you, there's nothing you bunch of kids could possibly do to me to get it back."

"Don't bet on that!" Joey rushed forward to Lab Coat, a clenched fist extended and aimed straight for the scientist's jaw.

Lab Coat quickly twisted around and aimed his weapon at Joey. With a near imperceptible click, a beam of blinding white energy burst forth from the rifle's barrel; Joey screamed in sheer pain as the terrible power slammed into his chest, shoving him into back office wall with so much force that he blacked out upon contact.

"Joey!" The three friends stared in horror as his limp figure slumped to the floor. Tristan looked back at the sneering scientist and snapped, "You'll pay for that, you bastard!"

In a passing instant, a streak of white suddenly brushed through the doorway and shoved into Tristan. Yugi whipped around to see that the wolf-man had grabbed him by the throat and pinned him up onto the corridor wall; his eyes started to bulge as he gasped for breath from the horrible chokehold.

"Plato, it's quite all right." Lab Coat raised his weapon and aimed its barrel at Tristan's chest. "This should take care of that insolent fool."

"No!" Yugi dashed towards the scientist-clad man; a lilac blur swept before his eyes and he found himself lying on the ground, the she-beast angrily snarling into his face as she clenched down tightly on his wrists.

"Yugi, no!" Téa attempted to run to her friend, but Lab Coat suddenly turned his rifle on her and pulled the trigger. The blinding beam of energy struck her directly in the stomach; with a shriek of terror she was thrust back into the office wall and fell with a soft _thud _onto the carpet.

Trapped underneath the stunningly strong she-beast, Yugi could only watch as Moreau turned and aimed his rifle at Tristan; the male creature flew through the open doorway in a streak of white as the shining energy burst out of the weapon. Tristan lifelessly hovered in the air, surrounded by the beam's shimmering aura, before Lab Coat released the trigger and let him drop onto the corridor floor.

"Tristan!" Yugi helplessly stretched out his fingers towards his fallen friend.

Lab Coat turned towards Yugi and the lilac-furred beast. "Nikki, that Duel Disk the child is wearing; is there anything inside of it?"

The she-beast glanced towards the device around his wrist. "No, master, it's empty."

"Good. Just toss him up against the wall, then; my precious can take care of the rest."

In a passing moment, the she-beast suddenly shifted her hands from Yugi's wrists to his shirt collar; with only a lilac blur passing before his eyes, he was swiftly lifted into the air and thrust backwards. A terrible blow suddenly smashed against his skull, and a flash of searing, painful light burst before his eyes.

Cool plaster ran roughly against his back as he slid down to the floor; though the light had faded in an instant, the room had become hazy and the vision of Lab Coat now standing before him was a mere fog of silver and white.

Moreau's voice spoke to him; he sounded so distant, the words echoing in his eardrums. "This one's for you, child. Should you come out of this alive, I want you to do me a favor: Let the entire world know that they shouldn't dare to interfere with the ingenuity of Dr. Julian Moreau."

There was a small _click_, and a final flash of bright light before everything went dark.


	4. Chapter Four:Possible Losses

**Chapter Four: Possible Losses**

A world of white light. All around him, nothing but pure brightness, blinding in its iridescent shine. Yet the place was a void; he felt no pain, no warmth or chill, not the slightest hint of air. Only a strangely calming silence…

A flicker of violet, just out of the corner of his eye. He turned; there, a shimmering figure enveloped in a royal purple glow. He could not see beyond the violet light, yet the being inside was so familiar, a faithful friend of many years…no, many centuries…

The deep purple began twisting, shifting, transforming into a small orb of iridescent violet. He could feel the invisible energy it held, pulsating with mystical forces far beyond mortal comprehension. It grew, expanded, drew around him in a shimmering violet cloak. The energy filled him with inhuman strength; this was power like he'd never felt before…

They were one.

* * *

_Yugi!_

A familiar voice called from the recesses of his mind; he stared up at the darkness behind his closed eyes, listening to a dull, monotonous _beep _play over and over again. Something was poking into his arm; his hand slowly reached over and touched it, feeling a long, smooth item embedded in his skin.

_Yugi, please, open your eyes!_

He attempted to move his eyelids; they were so heavy, like thick black blankets…with a bit of effort, a small crack of light came out of the darkness; the hazy shimmer slowly grew, the fuzziness around its edges smoothing until it became a flat, rectangular light embedded within the ceiling.

He slowly turned his head towards the flat beeping at his side; the noise was being emitted from a monitor-like device sitting atop a small white cabinet, two jagged green lines running across its black screen. Wires from the device had been firmly embedded in his arm, along with the needle of an IV unit pumping needed liquid into his veins while he rested atop a flat, snow-white bed.

_I'm in the hospital…how did I get here? _When _did I get here?_

In the corner of his mind's eye, Pharaoh's familiar face appeared, relief etched across his features. _How are you feeling?_

Yugi paused. He slowly raised his hands up to his face and gently moved his fingers, bending them with usual ease. Lowering them down to his bed's side, he cautiously raised one knee up to his chest, then the other. _I think I'm alright…_

He brought himself up to a sitting position, wincing as he felt a soft pain against the back of his head. _Be careful, _Pharaoh advised him,_ you were slammed pretty heavily into the wall by Moreau's creature._

Moreau…?

The man's name tore out his remaining tiredness, jolting him awake with the memories it shoved back into his mind. _Joey! Tristan! Téa! What happened to them?_

_Don't worry; the police and the paramedics came into the office not long after Moreau used his device on you. All of you were taken to the hospital along with Kaiba and his injured security guards. Joey apparently had a minor concussion, but otherwise our friends' extent of damage done is just cuts and bruises. They were discharged a few hours ago._

Yugi breathed a small sigh of relief. _And what about Moreau?_

Pharaoh's eyes narrowed. _He and his two creatures simply flew out of Kaiba's office by use of the she-beast's wings._

_Damn…_

"Yug!"

The familiar voice brought Yugi out of the mental chat. He turned his head towards the door as Joey entered, wearing a few small bandages and a wide grin on his face. "'Bout time ya woke up; we were startin' ta worry that you'd be out for good."

"Hey, Joey," Yugi gave him a wan smile. "Are the others doing OK?"

"Well, I dunno about Tristan," Joey shrugged. "Not even the docs were able ta do somethin' about his ugly mug."

"I heard that!"

Tristan bolted into the room and lunged at Joey; the two of them crashed onto the tiled floor, wrapped up in another one of their typical fights. Moments later, Téa appeared in the doorway; she looked down warily at the guys, all tangled up with fists flying at each other. "This is why I need some female friends…" she muttered.

Yugi couldn't help but smile at the scene. His friends were definitely fine.

The calm, authoritative voice of a doctor floated into the hospital room from down the hall: "Mr. Kaiba, I strongly suggest that you reconsider your decision to leave. You don't know that other complications might develop-"

"Doctor, if you attempt to prevent me from leaving one more time, I promise that I will sue you for everything that you're worth. Now get out of my way."

Joey pressed one foot down onto Tristan's stomach; with his buddy pinned to the ground, he stood up and looked out the open doorway with an annoyed glare. "What the heck is Rich Boy's problem? Some of us actually like ta sleep after takin' a beating, and he's already up and screamin' at the doc that he has ta get outta here this freakin' minute!"

"Did he say why?"

"'Course not; and even if he had, does anyone understand why that jerk does anything?"

"Are you sure that you're not the one that has problems with understanding anything, Wheeler?"

Seto Kaiba had appeared in the doorway, giving Joey a cold stare. He was holding up one hand to cover his right cheek; Yugi could only assume that the beasts had scratched him like they'd slashed at his security guards. "I understand that you four geeks came to my office last night."

"That's 'cause the psychotic doc, whoever the heck he was, swiped Yug's gramps' Blue Eyes White Dragon," Joey snapped in response.

"I'm aware of that," Kaiba snarled. "The four of you tried to confront him, I assume?"

"Not with success," Yugi murmured, rubbing the back of his sore head. "Those creatures and that scientist's weapon were too much for us to handle."

Kaiba's eyes just slightly narrowed. "He hit you four with his rifle?"

"That wasn't a rifle; it was some kinda ray-gun like from those cheesy sci-fi flicks!" Joey cried.

"I see…"

Kaiba remained in the doorway for a moment, glancing around at them. Yugi thought he was going to say something more, but he simply turned and continued down the hallway. Not once did his hand lower from his face.

"And 'get well soon' ta you too!" Joey sarcastically called. "I'm not sure what's worse: seein' that jerk or havin' one of my best cards, my freakin' _favorite _card, vanish inta thin air!"

Yugi stared at him. "Your Flame Swordsman is gone?"

"It's not just his card," Tristan's voice called from the floor. "Every Monster and Magic card we had is gone!"

"When we checked out of this hospital and got our stuff back, we couldn't find our Duel Monsters with them; we went through our bags and pockets dozens of times and came up with nothing," Téa explained as she sat down on the side of Yugi's bed. "The doctor told us every patient's personal things are locked up tight and nobody has a chance to get to them before they're discharged, but they still just… disappeared."

"My vote is that the guy in the lab coat swiped 'em," Joey snapped. "It wasn't enough that he swiped Gramps' card; he had ta go and help himself to ours, too!"

Yugi barely heard his angry rants; although his eyes were on his friends, his gaze was focused on the recesses of his mind, still trying to let news of the Duel Monsters' disappearance sink into its crevices. He hadn't checked his own belongings yet, but what were the chances that Dark Magician remained when the other cards had been taken?

_Our cards are…gone?_

A sensation of warmth spread around his eyes as hot tears began welling up. Maybe it was silly, crying over the loss of just a card…but the Dark Magician had been more than 'just a card' to him. He'd always been an excellent addition to his deck, loyal and quite powerful in a duel. The loss almost seemed like the death of a longtime friend. Grandpa probably had a spare card stored somewhere in the shop, but a replacement never carried the memories and usage of the original, did it?

_Yugi? _Pharaoh's image reappeared in his mind, smiling sympathetically. _I'm sorry about this loss. Dark Magician was a powerful ally for the both of us._

_Yeah…_Yugi clenched his hands into fists. _That Dr. Moreau…how could he-_

_He didn't, _Pharaoh frowned. _I watched over all four of you since you were knocked unconscious by the doctor. When he was finished with you, he and his creatures simply left; they never had the opportunity to swipe our monsters._

_But…that doesn't make sense; if Moreau didn't take them, then where did they go?_

* * *

"Master? Master, what's wrong?"

Moreau barely heard Plato calling to him. He was at his third lab's makeshift desk, a metal folding table and matching chair, scanning heavily over the newspaper article he'd pulled up on his laptop. Since last night's outing, a nagging concern had been pulling at the corner of his mind: That one boy, the short one with the spiky, tri-colored hair, had some sort of familiarity about him. Where had he seen him before…?

"Master, would you please tell us what the problem is?" Nikki folded her arms and impatiently tapped her paw on the grey stone floor. "You're starting to freak us out, you know?"

Moreau had typed the words 'Blue Eyes White Dragon' and 'torn' into an internet search engine; the most frequent match for his search were newspapers articles dated a few years or so ago, chronicling the defeat of former Duel Monster champion Seto Kaiba by a relative newcomer named Yugi Muto over the CEO tearing up the kid's grandfather's Blue Eyes White Dragon.

_Yugi Muto…the King of Games?!_

Moreau became paralyzed in his seat, his fingers hovering just inches above the keyboard. _If that was the King of Games…damnit, why would it have mattered if his Duel Disk was empty?! The King of Games could get challenged at any time; he'd be certain to carry a deck with him everywhere that he went! _

Nikki and Plato jumped as Moreau slammed clenched fists onto his makeshift desk. "I have just made a critical error…" he snarled through gnashed teeth. "I used my invention on someone who likely had Duel Monsters on his person!"

After seething at his desk for a few moments, he slowly pushed himself up and turned to face Nikki and Plato. "Do you know what that means? I have most likely created another one of your kind!"

Nikki stared. "I thought that was the purpose of your device; you know, so that you can create a superior race?"

"Yes, Nikki, but you've seen the majority of the human race's reaction to my culminations of perfection. They consider beautiful creatures such as yourself abominations; crimes against humanity, even! And if those humans reveal to the world what I may have just done to them, do you think we'll have a remote chance to fulfill the rest of my plans?"

"I thought the one human was our biggest concern, master," Plato said.

"Friends are bonded by commonality, Plato; the King of Games' friends must have had cards on their persons."

"I see. What will we do about this possible wrench in your plans, then?"

Moreau turned around and snatched a silver pistol up from his desk. The pulsing energy within pounded fiercely against the palm of his hand. "You two scour the place; old warehouses such as this must have vermin or insects hidden in its corners."

Nikki stared at him. "You seriously want us to fetch those disgusting pests for you?" she shuddered. "What the heck do you need those sick things for?"

"For the possible wrench. If we want to avoid exposure, then there's only one definitive solution, Nikki: Complete and total elimination…"


	5. Chapter Five: Vision and Vermin

**Author's Note:** I'm so sorry for not updating this story since August; I've been plagued by both homework and a terrible lack of motivation to write. Thankfully my motivation is back, and with the freedom of Spring Break coming up, I'll hopefully get more chapters up much sooner. Enjoy, everyone.

* * *

**Chapter Five: Vision and Vermin**

Minutes after Kaiba's short visit, the nurse on duty came into Yugi's room and told his friends that they'd have to go; visiting hours were almost over and the patient had to rest until he received permission to be released. Joey and Tristan, however, protested so vehemently against just leaving their 'best buddy' behind and letting him be 'bored to death' all alone in the 'God-forsaken place' that she eventually sighed in defeat and left. Yugi was silently glad that she'd allowed them to stay, and soon agreed that they were right: Without his deck or any sort of game or book on hand, the sterile place was simply boring. Nothing of interest came onto the plasma TV bolted to the ceiling as he flipped through the programs, save for a channel which Joey cried for him to stop on as a female reporter said something about Kaiba Corp:

"The Kaiba Corporation, we reported last night, had been left in the hands of Vice President Mokuba Kaiba while CEO Seto Kaiba and nearly all of the corporation's security detail were taken to Domino Hospital after an apparent attack on the corporate headquarters. We have now received word from a KC representative that the younger Kaiba has left the corporation in the care of a temp worker; apparently he and his brother, who was just recently released from the hospital, are leaving Domino for an indeterminate amount of time. Where exactly the two are going remains an undisclosed location."

"'Course it's undisclosed; like Rich Boy wants dat freaky nut-job ta know where he is," Joey muttered.

"I wonder what that man had to do with Kaiba Corp…" Yugi murmured.

"Rich Boy completely wiped him out, sent some shop of his down the tubes, just spoke ta him with dat acid tongue of his…" Joey ticked the options off his fingers. "Knowin' him, dere's one of about a million things he coulda done."

"But why would he need Grandpa's card?"

"Maybe he wanted it as an example of the nasty things Kaiba has done," Téa suggested. "He could have been trying to make him feel guilty."

Joey snorted. "Yeah, like any amount of guilt could get through dat stone-cold heart."

Their speculating was interrupted as the nurse rolled a cart topped with a tray of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green gelatin and a carton of milk into the room. Yugi was stunned when she announced it was his dinner; he glanced up at the clock running in the bottom corner of the TV screen and realized that he'd been out for almost a full 24 hours. It was surprising that he'd been out for so long when his friends were already awake and discharged, but the lengthy amount of time explained why he eagerly consumed the greasy meatloaf and lumpy potatoes. The gelatin and milk he left for Joey and Tristan to fight over; if he didn't offer it to them, their bottomless pits for stomachs would probably compel them to snatch the food out of his hands anyway.

About an hour after dinner was eaten and the four friends had passed the seemingly endless time chatting about Duel Monsters, plans for the summer vacation, whatever topics they could grasp at, the nurse reappeared in the doorway with a smile on her face and a large plastic bag in her hands. Yugi respectfully cheered only in his mind as she reported that he'd been given a clean bill of health and had permission to leave; Joey and Tristan, on the other hand, couldn't help but pump their fists into the air.

The nurse placed the plastic bag onto the end of Yugi's bed; inside sat his clothing, his Duel Disk, and the empty pouch for his deck hanging off his studded belt. As soon as she'd pulled the IV needle out of his arm and left, he eagerly grabbed the bag and dashed into the bathroom, calling over his shoulder that he'd quickly change so that they could leave. Before he dressed, however, with the loss of his friends' cards in mind, he eagerly tore through his belongings; though he rifled through his pockets, peered into each compartment of the Duel Disk, and turned the pouch upside down, his search was ultimately fruitless. The Dark Magician was indeed gone.

"I'm sorry you lost your Dark Magician, Yugi; I know that it was your favorite," Téa murmured as the four stepped out the hospital's doors and into the parking lot; he hadn't actually said he'd lost his card, but she knew from the dejected look on his face.

He looked up at her with a wan smile. "Ah, it's all right. Grandpa has a spare on hand, I'm sure."

"'Ey, could you ask him if he's got another Flame Swordsman somewhere?" Joey inquired. "I don't wanna risk going into a duel without one of my best cards in my deck."

"Don't worry too much," Tristan gave him a sly grin, "with or without that card, sooner or later, you're guaranteed to have another loss."

"And with or without your Cyber Commander, you're just plain guaranteed to stay a loser."

"Says the guy who's lost to Yugi, Téa, Kaiba…c'mon, Joey, who else?"

"Shaddup, ya stupid ape!"

"Screw you, damn underdog!"

_Yugi._

_Pharaoh? _In his mind's eye, Yugi could see worry crossing the ancient king's face._ What's wrong?_

_I sense something approaching…I want to say it's the same sensation from last night, but…_His eyes narrowed. _It's stronger now…as though there are more of them…_

_Are—are you sure?_

_Yes…Yugi, we must be careful; they're close-_

Yugi stopped still on the pavement, letting the bickering Joey and Tristan walk ahead with Téa following behind at a safe distance. An unknown sensation was compelling him to pause, to close his eyes and simply watch.

Only for a moment was he thrust into the darkness behind his eyelids. The garage materialized before him again, though it appeared in shades of black and white, like a scene from old-time cinema. The only flash of color appeared at the corner of his eye; Pharaoh's transparent spirit stood beside him, staring at the scene in bewilderment.

Joey and Tristan walked before them, still completely engrossed in their argument; the sounds of their voices were muted, however, giving them the appearance of engagement in an angry pantomime. Yugi's heart began to pound as they kept going forward in their silent rage. Something was about to happen…something horrific…

_Yugi…they have to stop._

_I know…guys, stop! STOP!_

A white blur rushed out from amidst the parked cars. The streak swept before Joey and Tristan, snatching them up in its grasp; with an agile leap, the snowy shape smashed through the windshield of a parked car across the lane and, without pause, blew through the back window, shards of glass bursting out in bright flashes on the streak's wind.

The blur left Joey and Tristan sitting in the car's front seats. In sharp contrast to their previous state of heated argument, they were eerily still, slumped as though they were asleep. Trickles of grey blood spilled in sick rivulets from the gashes and tears that streaked their faces and clothes.

_Are they…?_ Yugi couldn't bring himself to finish the question.

Though the scene thankfully faded, he couldn't shake the black-and-white bloody image of his friends from his mind. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Joey and Tristan had continued forward, unaware of anything but their argument; Téa, however, had paused to stare at him.

"Yugi? What's wrong?"

"Téa, Joey and Tristan have to stop."

"What?"

Pharaoh switched with Yugi, still too stunned and weakened by last night's ordeal to act quickly. "They have to stop!"

Téa shrieked as Pharaoh rapidly brushed past her. Without time to concoct a better plan, he dashed up behind Joey and Tristan and grabbed them by the back of their shirts. Their angry cries fell to sudden silence as he yanked them backwards.

The whip of a cool breeze slapped at Pharaoh, Joey, and Tristan as a lilac and gold blur flew past them. Pharaoh winced at the sensation of a brush of fur on his face; if he'd remained still only one more moment…

The blur darted up onto the car just as it had in his strange vision, but instead of smashing through the windshield, it twisted around and halted atop the hood, facing them in a crouching position. As it stood, Pharaoh realized that it was the strange young woman from the previous night, with the lilac fur and the golden dragonfly wings.

"What the hell!" The woman stomped her foot on the hood with a metallic _clang_. "How could I miss you humans?! I had the perfect shot, _the perfect shot_!"

"That's quite enough." The young man with white fur emerged from where the girl had darted out, his eyes narrowed into a stern glare. "Don't make such a fuss, Nikki; if Moreau's incorrect, then you would have wasted your strength on those humans."

"You guys again!" Joey angrily pulled out of Pharaoh's grasp and shook a fist at the human/monster hybrids. "What de hell do you two want with us now?!"

"Uh, first of all, we are not 'you two,'" the young woman sneered. "I'm Nikki, and he's Plato." She gracefully leapt off the car and floated over to her white-furred companion, her gold wings shimmering under the moonlight. "And second of all, we're here on orders from Moreau."

"Who de heck's Moreau?!"

"Hello? White lab coat, silver ray gun?" Nikki pointed tellingly at Joey's head. "Are you humans seriously that dense? No, don't answer that, the question's totally rhetorical."

"Enough!" Pharaoh snapped before Nikki could bring Joey to his boiling point. "What _do_ you want with us?"

"Oh, we want nothing, really," Nikki sighed, examining her claws with feigned boredom. "Like Plato said, if the doc's wrong, then fighting you would be a total waste of our time."

"Dr. Moreau was kind enough to find others for his intention," Plato continued. "We're only here because their…lack of mental capacities requires guidance towards their goals."

"What others?" Tristan looked around the lot. "There's no one else here."

"That's because we haven't called them yet." Nikki clapped her paws together and cheered in a sing-song voice, "Yoo-hoo! Little creatures, it's time to play-ay!"

The four friends gave a start as a faint chorus of howls and snarls surrounded them, heeding Nikki's call from what seemed like every corner of the lot. The brutish cries started to crescendo, their cacophony slowly gaining the accompaniment of the patter of dozens of paws on cracked pavement and the rapid beats of leathery wings.

Téa slowly began to back away, but her frightened retreat was jolted to a halt by a snarl from behind. She twisted around and let out a terrified shriek at the sight before her eyes: A wolf's head snarled at her from atop a car, its eyes shining with blood-red light, but it was attached to the humongous body of a grey-haired spider, its eight crooked legs towering above her and ending in a wolf's padded paws. The beast's fangs were dripping with saliva; it was eagerly anticipating a meal.

"Get away!" She whipped around to flee, only to freeze upon seeing more spider wolves. They were crawling out from the shadows between the vehicles, gliding down from the streetlights by strands of sticky webbing spilling out of their mouths—they were seemingly everywhere.

And they weren't alone. Pharaoh, Joey, and Tristan ducked in horror as a black shape swooped towards them; when they glanced back, they recoiled at the sight of their assailant. A black-furred rat the size of a small dog hovered above them with the aid of a bat's leathery wings, baring buck teeth that dripped with diseased green ooze. A swarm of its fellow creatures flew in around them, creating dozens of pinpricks of red light against the black sky.

"Oh, hu-mans!" Nikki flashed the four a merry sneer as she flapped her golden wings with a soft whir, slowly rising for departure. "Do be careful—our little creatures have a tendency to…play rough. C'mon, Plato, let's go."

Plato lifted his arms above his head. Nikki grabbed his outstretched hands and, with a grunt, tugged him off the ground; they soared upwards and disappeared into the night sky, leaving the four friends alone to face the twisted creations.


	6. Chapter Six: Unleashed

**Chapter Six: Unleashed**

"I used to hate rats," Tristan backed away with a shudder from the tiny shower of slime dripping from the rat-bats' mouths; the droplets sizzled on the pavement with acidic disease. "Now I _really _hate them."

"_Rats?_ Those aren't rats, those are freaks of nature!" Joey snapped.

As though they understood the insult, the rats started shrieking in a cacophony of high-pitched protest, forcing the four to cover their ears. "Not ta mention annoying!"

"Guys, what do we do?" Téa screamed as she backed towards her friends, eyes glued to the spider wolf edging forward with hunger gleaming in its eyes.

In response, Joey bent down and grabbed a loose chunk of asphalt. "Get outta here, ya freaks!" he shouted as he chucked the asphalt into the flying swarm.

The black chunk smacked a rat-bat atop its cranium. It merely shook its head and spat back an angry spray of green slime, thankfully landing just short of Joey's shoes and fizzling tiny holes into the tar.

"Uh…Plan B, anybody?" Joey gulped.

The spider wolves let out fever-pitched howls in unison and charged at their targets; as though inspired by the wild call, the rat-bat swarm dove in one fell swoop. The four friends were split out amidst the parking lot as the wolves and rats divided themselves into miniature groups, each one singling out a particular prey for the hunt.

Pharaoh dashed across several rows of cars, narrowly dodging the acidic missiles the pursuing rat-bats spat at him, before he pivoted and fled down a lane. Though the darkness up and down the lane was alit only by faint, even-spaced gleams of streetlights, the heavy thumps of paws atop asphalt and slaps of wings against the air remained within earshot.

Something wet and sticky suddenly slapped against the back of Pharaoh's hand. He glanced down and saw a thick strand of webbing firmly affixed to his hand; the other end dangled from the mouth of one of the spider wolves. He yanked his arm backwards, but the gossamer threads held fast to his skin.

Pharaoh let out a sharp cry as he suddenly lurched forward; the spider wolf was gradually swallowing the glue-like threads, dragging him towards his pursuers in the process. He desperately pulled his hand back, trying to snap the strands, but they were soon joined by innumerable others dripping with saliva. The spider wolves' approaching snarls were impatient with the yearning for a meal.

A last-ditch effort to dash away and pull the webbing so far it'd have to snap brought Pharaoh face-to-face with three snapping rat-bats; he swatted at them with his free arm, but they skirted his blows with ease. One of them spat in protest at his waving hand; Pharaoh winced as the acidic spray seared at his skin.

_Pharaoh! _Yugi's voice screamed in his mind.

_It's all right…it's a minor burn…_Pharaoh tried to smile wanly. He glanced around the lot being dragged past his view, trying to find something to defend himself with, but the faint streetlight's glow illuminated no suitable weapon. And even if he found one, the rat-bats' acid would probably sear straight through it anyway…

_No, I can't start thinking such things, _Pharaoh snapped in his mind, wincing his eyes shut with anger and clenching his free hand into a defiant fist. No matter what the situation, he had to defeat these things, had to find his friends wherever they were located amidst the lot and help them with their own clusters of beasts. After battling countless other villains with crazed machinations, they weren't going to be defeated this easily; he could feel lividness heating his veins at the mere thought of such a simple death.

No…this wasn't anger. Anger boiled at a person's blood and throbbed painfully at their temples; this sensation was strangely soothing for the situation, filling his body with warm radiance…

_Pharaoh._

The voice rang through Pharaoh's mind, but it wasn't Yugi's; it was deeper, touched with the hint of a foreign accent.

_Who…? _Yugi's spiritual presence appeared in the corner of their mind, glancing around its recesses in bewilderment.

_Please just listen, _the unknown speaker interrupted. _I cannot speak for long. I do not know how this came about, but I know this was not done by your own hands. You have treated me with unparalleled respect for the time I have been in your service; in return, as these circumstances stand, I grant you the usage of my abilities. They are…incomplete for the moment, but do not worry; they will grow with time…_

Silence. Pharaoh opened his eyes, blinking in surprise. Who was that…?

A gasp at his side made him twist around; Yugi's own spiritual presence stood beside him, staring in bewilderment. _Pharaoh, look at yourself!_

Pharaoh raised his free hand to his face and repeated his friend's startled cry. Shimmering around his outline was an aura of royal violet. He could clearly sense powerful energy radiating from the glow, strengthened by centuries of mystical training.

It was…his? No, it belonged to whoever had just addressed him…again, who was that?

A blast of violet light suddenly spread out from Pharaoh's palms, taking on an elongated shape with pointed tips at each end. The shimmer faded to reveal a familiar staff, shining emerald green with sky-blue trim and a verdant orb cupped into the top.

"My God…" Pharaoh breathed in recognition. "This belongs to—"

He was interrupted by the sound of sharp snaps. The webbing affixed to Pharaoh's arm had been bit in half; the spider wolves were gradually pattering backwards, round bodies crouched to the ground, and the rat-bats slowly retreating towards the night sky. They warily eyed their prey's shimmering aura and the weapon that had seemingly appeared from nowhere.

Pharaoh turned the staff's tip towards the wolves. As if on command, a ray of violet pulsating with energy burst forth from the orb and struck one spider wolf in the snout, its comrades scurrying into the lot's shadows. The spider wolf howled painfully as it became engulfed in purple light; its cry died away as the light faded, leaving not a single grey hair behind.

Pharaoh stared in disbelief at the vacant spot where the spider wolf had stood. _Incredible…_

_Pharaoh! _Yugi's voice cried. _We have to find the others!_

_Right! _Pharaoh dashed back through the rows of vehicles, clutching his newfound staff tightly in his hand. He glanced up and down each lane he passed, hoping for even a glimpse of his friends; two spider wolves and a rat-bat pounced and swooped before his path, but a blast of violet from his wand's tip extinguished them in an instant.

He finally found Joey three lanes down, standing amidst a circle of wolves and bats. He evidently hadn't had much success fighting the beasts; he was wrapped from his neck to his knees in sticky webbing from the wolves' mouths, wildly squirming around to both break free and dodge the rat-bats' swoops at his head.

"Get off, dammit, get off!" Joey screamed. A spider wolf snarled in response and swiped at Joey's face with its front paw; Joey tried to turn his head away, but the tips of its claws just brushed at his cheek, forming thin, bloody gashes.

Pharaoh rushed forward, aiming his staff at the spider wolf that had slashed his friend. "Get away!" he screamed as violet energy shot out the orb.

Joey turned his head back as purple light flickered in the corner of his eye; when the violet shimmer had faded, his slashing attacker was gone. He blinked in surprise as he recognized his violet-shining savior through the lot's faint light. "Yug?" he called out.

The other spider wolves and rat-bats twisted to face Pharaoh, golden and crimson eyes flashing angrily. The wolves snapped down on the threads bound to Joey; snarling and squealing, the creatures advanced towards Pharaoh, fangs bared and acid dripping from bucked teeth.

"Hey, keep your paws off my friend, ya freaks!" Joey screamed at the hybrids' backs. They didn't even glance back at him; their focus had turned entirely to the Pharaoh.

Pharaoh didn't care that they were nearing; he was armed, Joey was not. He tightened his grip on his staff as the creatures prowled forward, the aura around his body brightening with energy from his anger.

A fiery flash of light from behind the creatures drew his eye. For the second time that night, he gasped in bewilderment. An aura of flickering flames surrounded Joey's outline, but he showed no sign of being in pain; the stony glare aimed at the creatures didn't even wince.

_Splat, splat, splat. _The webbing around Joey dropped onto the ground, melted into white ooze from the intense heat of the flames. A burst of fire shot out of his hand and solidified into a shining fire-orange sword, its silver hilt hovering in his palm.

Joey wrapped his hand around the hilt, weirdly un-phased by his gain of fiery power, and charged forward with a roar, a streak of flame searing through the night. He brought the sword down on a spider wolf and slashed it in two, its halves burning to ashes from the inferno raging around the blade.

The terrified creatures scattered into the lot's recesses, desperately trying to escape the flames. Two rat-bats had ended up too close to the fiery aura; as they soared into the night sky, they slowly grew into raging fireballs shining against the darkness, then abruptly fizzled out.

Pharaoh and Joey stared at each other in silence, each one unable to believe that the other was radiating with unnatural light and holding a familiar weapon in their hands. Joey finally spoke: "Yug, did I finally crack, or are we seriously glowin' and holdin' Dark Magician's staff and Flame Swordsman's blade in our hands?"

Pharaoh gave him a wan smile. "After all that we've seen and done, I believe it's safe to say this is actually happening."

"I hope so, 'cause hallucinatin' this will definitely get us sent ta the loony bin," Joey stared at his fiery blade.

The familiar flap of heavy wings drew their attention to the sky. Three more rat-bats were soaring towards them; their snouts were shut, but they dripped with acidic green juice, ready to spit it at their targets. Pharaoh and Joey prepared their weapons for the attack, auras mixing in motley of orange and violet.

"Fire in the hole!"

_Rat-a-tat-a-tatta! _The rapid fire of a machine gun rang through the entire lot. The rat-bats let out choked squeaks and plunged like furry cannonballs to the ground; when they landed, Pharaoh and Joey could see tiny bullet holes of blood dotting their matted fur.

Tristan stepped out from between the nearby parked cars, a silver machine gun clutched in his hand and an ammunition belt filled with golden bullets slung over his shoulder. He wore a broad grin of triumph on his face, but it quickly faded to shock when he saw the auras surrounding his friends and the weapons they carried themselves. "Are you guys—all right?" he hesitated to ask.

"Oh, sure," Joey replied. "Freaky creatures attackin' us, weird powers appearin' outta nowhere—just the usual goin' on here."

"Where did you get that weapon?" Pharaoh asked, though he sensed that he already knew the answer.

"I have no idea," Tristan shrugged. "One minute I'm surrounded by these freaks of nature out for my blood, and the next thing I know, they're dropping like flies because I'm firing Cyber Commander's gun like crazy." He paused to stare down at his gun. "And you know what's really weird? I've never used one of these things in my life—"

_"What?" _Joey immediately crouched onto the ground. "Watch where the heck you're pointing that thing!"

"Let me finish, smartass," Tristan snapped. "I've never used one of these things, but I'm suddenly an expert at firing it."

"Good," Joey heaved a sigh of relief as stood up. "For a minute there, I thought you were gonna shoot someone's eye out."

"Right. And absolutely _no _one could get hurt with you holding that," Tristan pointed at Joey's sword.

"Shaddup," Joey muttered. He glanced around the parking lot. "Well, I don't see anythin' else comin' to brawl, so now what?"

"We have to find Téa," Pharaoh replied. "Did either of you see her while you were being chased around?"

"I haven't seen her since we split," Tristan shook his head.

"I was kinda focused on not getting eaten," Joey replied sheepishly.

"Let's hurry," Pharaoh murmured. "If her…potential powers haven't manifested yet, who knows what might happen—"

He was interrupted by the sound of a faint, familiar scream coming from the direction of the hospital. "Téa!" The three twisted around and quickly ran back towards the building, hoping that no one would exit and see them in their armed, shimmering states.

At the bottom of the white building, they discovered a few spider wolves and rat-bats who'd strayed from their packs that were quickly disposed of with bursts of magic, flames, and gunfire, but Téa was nowhere to be found. Pharaoh cupped his hands to his mouth and cried, "Téa!"

"Guys!" Téa's voice rang out faintly again, this time coming from above them.

The three looked up and saw, to their stunned horror, their seemingly miniscule friend dangling off the edge of the hospital roof; she was encased from the neck down in a cocoon of webbing that hung from a spider wolf's mouth. Rat-bats were gnawing at the threads she hung from; tiny snaps reached their ears from each string they bit through, letting Téa lurch further down with every moment.

"All right, let's blast those bastards to pieces!" Tristan pointed his gun up at group of creatures.

"No!" Pharaoh grabbed the machine gun's barrel and thrust its end towards the ground. "You can't take that risk; you might hit Téa!"

"What the heck are we supposed to do, then?!" Joey snapped. "There's no way we'll get up there in time before that stuff snaps!"

Neither Pharaoh nor Tristan had an answer. They could not fly (or at least, couldn't yet), they could not attempt an attack without risking their friend's life, and they certainly couldn't run through the hospital in their present states without causing a mass panic.

They could only watch as faint _snaps _reached their ears, strand after strand breaking down with consistent gnawing. Silently they moved forward, positioning themselves under their friend's dangling body; the least they could do was attempt to catch her as she fell.

Now there was only one thread left, one miniscule thread that would quickly break with a few chomps through its gossamer strands. Tristan cringed; Joey turned his head away, waiting for Téa's screams to near. Pharaoh said a silent prayer in his mind: _Please, if Téa has gained _anything_ that can help her, let it manifest itself now!_

_Snap._

Téa let out a loud shriek as she plunged, the creatures becoming miniscule and the ground approaching quickly. She past two floors, three floors, four floors, five—

_Snapsnapsnapsnapsnap._

She stopped. Téa blinked in surprise, realizing that at the same moment she'd come to a halt, the cocoon of webbing slid off her body, burst into pieces from behind. She gradually became aware of two appendages affixed to her back, gracefully moving back and forth seemingly of their own volition; in the corner of her eyes, she caught a flash of gold coming in and out of sight.

_What… happened? _She could only think the question; she was too stupefied to speak.

"Téa, get out of the way!"

Téa shrieked again as she suddenly flipped around in midair and soared away from the hospital, the cool nighttime breeze rushing past her face. Past the sound of nearby flaps, she heard the ring of the rapid fire of gunshots and two distinct blasts, one crackling with flames, the other unknown.

Gradually overcoming the shock, Téa turned so that her feet pointed at the ground. She held her breath as she gently floated downwards, letting it out only once her boots crunched on loose asphalt.

She twisted back towards the hospital and realized, for the first time, that two of her friends were glowing with licks of flame and mystical energy, and all three carried distinctly familiar arms. Tristan was firing his machine gun up at the creatures that had been holding her hostage; as one of the rat-bats fell, Pharaoh blasted a beam of magical energy out of his staff, completely eliminating the deceased vermin.

_Maybe I've finally gone crazy…_

Slowly, Téa reached up her hand and rang her fingers against one…_wing, _now curved into her back like a cape_._ They brushed against a downy coat of golden feathers, soft to the lightest touch.

_It certainly feels real..._She shivered at the thought. _This is so weird…_

"Téa!" Pharaoh's voice snapped her head back up. Two slits of red amidst the black sky were nearing; a final rat-bat, dripping blood from bullet wounds along with droplets of acid. It had somehow evaded death and now headed towards her for a final attempt at an attack.

Téa felt two thin items suddenly appear in her hands, one curved and bumpy, the other stick-straight. With amazingly calm precision, she lifted her silver arrow, pulled it back on the string of the rose and violet bow with rose-colored wings on its tips, and aimed it at the rat-bat's heart. With a final sharp _snap, _the arrow pierced a shimmering arc in the air, ending its trip with a plunge through the vermin's heart. The rat-bat rapidly dropped to the pavement and died with a choked gurgle.

"Yeuch." Téa winced as she gingerly stepped around the dead rat-bat to reach her friends. The tip of her shoe lightly touched the edge of the pool of blood spouting from its wounds; she shuddered for the rest of the walk, muttering to herself, "Gross, gross, gross…"

"Nice aim," Joey grinned when she reached the trio.

"Um, thank you," Téa murmured absentmindedly. She raised her bow up to her eyes and gingerly stroked its pink string. "I can't believe this…just when I think the strangest things have already happened to us, Shining Friendship's wings become attached to my back and the Silver Bow and Arrow appear in my hands." She lowered the bow and glanced at her friends with question marks in her eyes. "How did this happen?"

"Moreau," Pharaoh immediately replied. "After he hit us with that mysterious weapon, our cards disappeared, and the monsters' powers became our powers."

"How the heck did he get this stuff outta a bunch of cards?!" Tristan pointedly held out his machine gun.

"Some kind of magic, I suspect, but…" Pharaoh's voice trailed off as he gazed down at his own staff. "Beyond that, I'm not sure…"

"Here's my question: Is there a way to, um, hide this stuff?" Joey stroked the blade of his sword. "'Cause I don't wanna imagine what would happen if someone saw us with these—"

The squeal of tires interrupted his musing. The four whipped around and, stunned with horror, listened to the roar of an approaching car. Before they found the courage to bolt, the bright beams of headlights clicked on, serving to both hide the approaching vehicle and hopelessly blind their vision.

Pharaoh snarled in anger as the squeal of tires stopped directly in front of them. Whoever sat in the driver's seat had a clear view of them.

Weapons and all.


	7. Chapter Seven: Arrival and Departure

**Chapter Seven: Arrival and Departure**

None of the four moved. They remained pinned to the asphalt, squinting behind shielding arms at the two glaring beams. Only the hum of the car's engine cut through their terrified silence.

_Cha-chunk! _A back door to the car opened and slammed shut. Soft footsteps approached the front of the vehicle. As though teasing the friends, the manifestations of their powers chose the moment too late to disappear, vanishing in bursts of violet light, fiery inferno, metallic clanks, and golden shimmers.

"That wasn't funny," Joey snapped at his empty hands, still clutching an invisible sword.

A figure stepped in front of the headlights. He was tall, slender, and dressed in a sleeveless white trench-coat that almost shimmered under the glaring beams.

"Driver, dim the headlights," a familiar ice-cold voice snapped. "The high beams are too distracting."

Immediately the glare dimmed down to a tolerable shine. The four slowly lowered their arms and stared at Seto Kaiba, who stood before his iconic limousine. His steely blue eyes expressed no shock, not even remote surprise at the sight they must have witnessed just seconds before.

_Man, I've never been so happy to see Rich Boy, _Joey thought with a grin. _He'll just think that was some freaky hallucination or something!_

_He won't believe what he just saw, _Yugi's voice spoke in Pharaoh's mind. _He'd never let himself believe it._

"Interesting camaraderie of powers you four now possess."

The four stared at him in quiet disbelief. Joey broke the silence by screaming, "The one freakin' time we actually need your state of denial over anything and everything involving 'fairy tale crap'—!"

"I don't want to believe it," Kaiba interrupted. "There's nothing more I want than to not believe it." He turned away in frustration as he finished, "But for this one time in my life, I don't have a choice."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Joey asked.

Ignoring the question, the CEO glanced back at the four friends. "You want to know what happened, right? How Moreau managed to give you Duel Monsters' powers?"

"Exactly what is your connection to Dr. Moreau?" Pharaoh asked.

"We can't discuss it right now. You've gained abilities because of Moreau's device, and the last thing he wants is you four, living proof of his psychotic experiments, running loose and fully able to expose him." He motioned towards his limo. "So if you value your lives, then get in."

"You…actually _want _us to come witcha?" Joey cried in disbelief.

Kaiba emitted a frustrated sigh. "I'm doing what I have to do."

"Where exactly would we be going?" Pharaoh inquired.

"Where you four _need_ to go is someplace far enough to get out of Moreau's reach, and secluded enough that he won't be able to find you. That place is a private estate I own under an alias in California; I usually reside there while completing business in America, but for the moment Mokuba and I have taken up…temporary residence there while Moreau is loose."

"In other words, you decided ta run away and hide after Moreau nearly blasted ya ta death," Joey cocked one eyebrow. "And by the way, this 'trip' of yours better be 'all-expenses-paid,' 'cause I'm pretty sure we'll have plenty of them if we're hidin' out all the way in the U.S. with nothin' but the clothes on our backs."

The limousine's headlights flickered for a brief moment; when their shine became stable once more, the four could see that the CEO's eyes had narrowed further, impossible as that seemed, and he'd raised his hand before his right cheek as though he'd been slapped. "Wheeler, if you know what's good for you, then you'll shut up. And you won't be that completely deprived. I've been driving around to your places for the past few hours; your guardians were kind enough to pack plenty of bags for your trip." He sneered. "Interesting father you have, Wheeler; the man was in such a drunken stupor he could barely walk to your room without smacking into the walls. It certainly explains a lot about you."

An aura of inferno angrily burst out around Joey's body; his friends jumped back in shock from the licking embers.

Still stunningly un-phased, Kaiba turned and walked back towards the limo, calling over his shoulder: "Don't singe the seats; I highly doubt you have enough to pay for new leather covering."

As he climbed back into his limousine, leaving the door open for them, Joey turned to his friends and snarled with firelight flickering in his eyes, "I do _not _wanna go and hide with Rich Boy someplace out in the middle of nowhere!"

"Dude, I hate Kaiba as much as you do, but I don't exactly want to go back home and wait for that Moreau guy to come and try to kill me again," Tristan replied.

"Tristan's right," Pharaoh nodded. "Once Moreau realizes that we're alive and infused with our monsters' powers, he'll do all that he can to find us and destroy us; plus, we'll risk putting others in danger as well if he dares to come after us in another public area such as this. It appears this secluded estate is our best chance for both our safety and the safety of Domino."

Tristan and Téa nodded in agreement.

"Argh…" The aura of flame around Joey resignedly snuffed out. "Fine, but another insult like that and he'll have bigger problems ta worry about than a couple of burns on his seats."

The four walked around the limousine and climbed into the open door after Kaiba. While Joey, Tristan and Téa squeezed into the wraparound seat facing the limo's front, Pharaoh climbed into the seat directly next to Kaiba facing its back. The moment that he was seated, Yugi retook control of their body, granting his friend a small reprieve after the previous battle.

_Well, here we go on another adventure. _He smiled faintly as Joey and Tristan ogled the mini-bar, fully stocked with sodas and snacks, while Téa sighed in dismay at the sight of their faces. _If there's any good part about these trips, it's that we always do them with friends._

_Yugi. _Pharaoh's spirit reappeared by his side; he stared curiously at Seto Kaiba, who remained incredibly stoic even as Joey yelled at Tristan, who sat closer to the mini-bar, to give him some food already. _Something seems odd…_

_What do you mean?_

_Remember back at the hospital, when Kaiba visited us in our room? He was holding his hand up to the other side of his face, as though he'd been injured in the midst of his encounter with Moreau last night. And just moments before, he did it again while we were speaking with him._

_What's odd about that?_

_Yugi, we clearly saw him while he was standing before the headlights, and I don't recall seeing any wounds on the spot he was trying to hide._

Puzzled, Yugi asked aloud, "Kaiba?"

Kaiba glanced at him. "What?"

Yugi didn't respond for a few moments, his attention focused on the cheek Kaiba had been shielding with his hand before. Pharaoh was correct; there were no scratches or even mere pinpricks of claws visible on his skin.

"I'm sorry, it's nothing," he hurriedly glanced away.

"Hmph." As Kaiba turned and impatiently rapped on the limo's glass divider as a sign to the driver that they were ready to leave, Yugi snuck a sidelong glance at the CEO's face again. Nothing, not even a nearly invisible mark.

_That's weird, _Yugi concurred with Pharaoh as the limo lurched forward, _why would he hide his face from us if he had nothing to hide…?_

* * *

A mere hour after Seto Kaiba's limousine had left the hospital lot, a black, unmarked vehicle swung violently into its entrance from the street, coming to a screeching halt in the middle of the nearest lane. As its roaring engine abruptly snapped off, the back doors swung open and Nikki and Plato emerged from the car. The two had drawn the hoods of their respective lilac and white sweat-jackets over their heads to hide their brutish ears, while their paws were stuffed into oversized gloves. Their tails and Nikki's wings had been tied down and forcefully pinned to their backs with ropes bound around their waists; the loose jackets thankfully hid the strange bumps the precautions placed onto their figures.

"Both of you see if you can find the children's remains," Moreau's voice called from within the vehicle. "And don't waste too much time; every precious minute should be going towards the next phase of Project Essence."

"You got it, master," Nikki replied with a mock salute.

The two hybrids split up to scour the lot. Both of them crouched towards the ground like animals on the prowl as they scanned every potential hiding place they could deduce, wincing slightly as their bindings dug into their skin.

"Ye-ouch!" Nikki shrieked and jumped up from examining the underside of a car; bending over had sent the sharp prick of a loose piece of rope straight into her stomach. "Damnit…what's the point of having wings if you can't even use them?" she whined as she walked around the vehicle to the next lane. "This is totally unfair; next time we have to go out, I'm keeping my golden babies in plain view, and if they freak humans out that much, the fraidy-cats can just plain kiss my—"

In mid-sentence, the corner of her eye suddenly caught a flash of light from further down the lane. She twisted around and saw an elongated object shimmering underneath the sliver of moonlight that had just emerged from behind a swarm of clouds; the shining item sat in the midst of a crimson puddle, plunged through a furry black mass.

"What the heck…?"

Nikki darted towards the strange heap of objects, stopping at the edge of what she realized was a pool of blood. A dead rat-bat sat in the center of the liquid with a silver arrow plunged through its heart; she shuddered as she gingerly picked up the arrow and rat by the weapon's tip. "Yeuch…these things are even worse when they're dead…"

"Nikki!"

Nikki turned and saw Plato dash forward from between two cars; in one hand he dangled a dead rat-bat by its worm-like tail, and in the other was cupped a heap of something black and white.

"Ew! Don't get that near me; it's bad enough that I'm carrying this one!" Nikki shrieked and jumped back from the dangling vermin.

"Nikki, look closely at it."

"Do I have to?" she shuddered.

"Yes."

Nikki cringed as she leaned towards the rat-bat; her eyes immediately widened with shock as she realized dozens of round, blood-stained holes matted its straggly fur. "What the heck did that?"

"Bullets; I found dozens of casings littering the asphalt nearby." He motioned towards one pocket of his sweat-jacket, now bulging with something that flashed a golden light.

"And what's that?" Nikki pointed at the black and white lump.

"Ashes mixed with what I think are remains of webbing. This was a mere handful of the pile I found; I believe an entire spider-wolf was burned to death. And not only that, but…" He lifted his nose into the air and delicately sniffed at it, like a dog picking up on a scent. "Do you smell that?"

Nikki took in a whiff of the air. "You mean that weird, sweet smell? Yeah, I've been picking up on it here and there; no clue what the heck it is, though."

"Something tells me that it's residue from something else that was recently fired here, some substance of unknown origin."

"Heh boy. You know what this means, right?"

Plato nodded. "Apparently those four were able to defeat Moreau's beasts using fire, a gun, a bow-and-arrow, and another power we're uncertain about as of yet. I believe it's safe to say the doctor created more of our kind."

"No, it means Moreau's gonna make us go find and pick up, like, dozens more of these dead and disgusting things lying around somewhere!" Nikki held out the rat-bat stabbed with an arrow at her arm's length and stuck out her tongue in disgust. "Blech. This is _so_ not gonna be a good night…"

* * *

I hadn't helped him.

He'd collapsed right before my eyes. I was in his presence for the entire duration of what had happened, and I'd been too stunned, too frightened to even move.

When he'd needed me most, I'd failed him.

Tears stung my eyes, blurring my view of him as I kneeled beside his bedside. I reached out and grasped one of his limp hands in mine; its deceptive warmth gave no hint of impending death.

"I'm sorry…I'm so, so sorry."

Could he hear me? Probably not; he was elsewhere at the moment…

"I should have done something…" I gasped for breath in the midst of my sobs. "Why didn't I do something?"

"I believe the proper question right now, _señorita, _is why aren't you _doing _something?"

Cursed hope had stung me for a moment as the male voice began to speak, but I realized almost immediately that it wasn't whom I was crying for. I lifted my head and glared at the smeared figure standing beside me.

"What do you mean, 'doing something'?" I couldn't help but snap at him. "There's nothing that can be done! He's practically dead!"

The blur of a man knelt down beside me and gently cupped one of my hands in his own. "He is not dead yet, _amiga mìa. _He and the others who've fallen prey to this _are_ being…drained, shall we say, but their lives haven't ceased in entirety."

"Where have they gone, then?! If they stay in this state for too long, they're going to be nothing but empty shells!"

"That's why we must find what they've lost and bring it back."

"How? How?!" My entire body shook with my hysterical anger. "What can possibly be done to help them, especially when we don't have…_him?" _I finally snapped and buried my face into my interlocutor's shoulder, my wretched tears pouring freely onto his shirt. As I unleashed my sorrow, I felt his warming embrace wrap around me, a great comfort in this time of need.

"He may not be here, _señorita,_ but you are, and in spite of whatever doubts you might have, you possess power that is becoming comparable to his," his voice gently whispered in my ear. "If you used it to search for what he's missing, I know that you'd find it, contact it in some way. Trust in yourself, _amiga mìa; _you could not stop what happened, but you can fix it, _ciertamente._"

I smiled for the first time since the incident, his healing words flowing through me like a soothing liquid. It was almost magical, how he always knew the correct thing to say.

I could fix this. With all that I'd been taught, I would set things right.

No matter what it took.


	8. Chapter Eight: Beyond Surfaces

**Chapter Eight: Beyond Surfaces**

The void again, now enveloped in shimmering violet light. All around him silently swirled magical energy; he knew, now, that it had to be the source of the Dark Magician's powers. He had sensed the amicable connection before, but this was the first time he actually felt the full strength of his friend's powers. What incredible energy…

_Hello?_

Who was that? Certainly not his friend; this was a young, feminine voice echoing throughout the purple recesses. He tried to call out in response, but the void pulled in his voice and silenced it.

_Answer me, please! I know that you're here; I can feel it! Please…_

Her plea grew desperate, bordering along hysteria. How terrible that she couldn't get a response; if she was addressing him, he wasn't certain how to reply, and if she was addressing the Dark Magician…well, he had stated at the moment of manifestation that the time he could speak was limited.

_Thief! _Sadness suddenly gave way to hatred; the young woman's voice dripped with acidic anger. _I know that you're here, too. You listen to me: You've taken something that doesn't belong to you, you heartless usurper. I'm going to find you, and when I do, I'll make you give back what you stole. You will pay for this. Do you hear me? You will pay!_

* * *

Yugi snapped his eyes open with a gasp of shock. He sat straight up in his seat, the velvet blanket atop him sliding onto the floor. It took a few slow breaths of relaxation for him to gain a grip on his surroundings: Téa was peacefully curled up in the indigo leather seat beside his while Joey and Tristan happily snored away in the seats facing them. The soft hum of an engine permeated the white room, its lulling sound interjected by Joey's brief mutterings about donuts. A glance outside the window beside his seat revealed cerulean surroundings mixed with puffs of white clouds.

_That's right...we're on a plane to California…_

Vague recollections of the previous night came back to him. Kaiba's limousine had driven them directly to the airport after picking the four up; he was certain that the CEO had ordered his driver to speed down the near-empty streets, considering that they'd felt every bump in the highway and their sodas kept splashing into their faces. At the airport, a swift check for an enormous sum bought the five usage of an entire jet for the night, complete with a personal flight attendant to provide for all of their needs. She hadn't had much to do, though; immediately after boarding and shoving their bags into the overhead compartments, they'd simply called for blankets and pillows, exhausted after a battle followed by a rush to flee Domino, and fell asleep immediately.

Now, just as immediately, he'd been forced awake by the livid voice intruding on his dreams.

Pharaoh's spirit appeared before him, sitting atop the table between the first-class seats. _Yugi, are you alright?_

_I think so…you heard that voice, didn't you?_

_Its anger made it a bit difficult to ignore, _Pharaoh nodded.

_Who was that?_

_I can only guess it was someone that wasn't thrilled with us suddenly gaining the powers of the Dark Magician._

_It was strange…she could communicate with us, but we couldn't talk to her at all._

_Or at least not yet. Remember what Dark Magician said? Our powers are somewhat weak at the moment, but they'll grow with time._

Approaching footsteps drew the two out of their conversation; Pharaoh's spirit vanished as Kaiba appeared beside the four friend's seats. "You're awake," he stated curtly. "Get your friends up; our pilot says we'll be arriving at my estate in ten minutes."

Yugi blinked in surprise. "We're going straight there?"

"The place has a personal landing strip; normally I fly there in my Blue-Eyes jet, but for this occasion it would have attracted too much attention." He glanced in disdain at Joey, who'd jabbed a fist into the air that brushed against Tristan's jaw and cheered about chocolate sprinkles. "Plus all of us would never have been able to fit inside."

He twisted around and walked away. Yugi turned in his seat and peered over its top to watch the CEO return to a corner group of seats he'd taken over last night. He began to gather up his laptop and various papers and folders that covered the table; he'd bluntly told the four last night that they were documents about Moreau's project which he'd obtained from the police through 'unconventional' means (in other words, he'd hacked into their computer systems), and that he would not talk about them until they were at the estate. _I wonder what he's found out…_

Yugi used the final ten minutes to quickly alert his friends of the impending arrival. Téa and Tristan were easily shaken awake, but Joey wouldn't get up until Tristan finally screamed a 'wake-up call' directly in his ear; they managed to pry a furious Joey off Tristan's back with just two minutes to spare before the jet came to a screeching halt.

The five collected their things and directly exited the plane via a portable set of stairs one of Kaiba's servants rolled up. As soon as Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Téa reached the ground, they gazed in awe at the white-columned mansion before them, a pristine marble statue amidst the verdant woods. Two stone fountains stood on either side of the pathway leading up to the house, the water pouring forth from the mouths of Blue Eyes White Dragon statues.

"Would you four stop gawking and move already?" Kaiba snapped upon seeing their awestruck faces.

"Don't get so ticked; not everyone gets ta live in a place like this 24/7, ya know!" Joey shot back.

"I'm well aware that people are stuck in trashy little apartments like yours, Wheeler, but we don't have time to stop and stare right now."

Téa and Tristan grabbed Joey to stop him from lunging forward as Kaiba walked up to the cast-iron gates; thankfully this time his fiery abilities remained in check. The moment the CEO arrived at the entryway, the gates automatically swung open. He continued forward, calling instructions over his shoulder: "The servants will come out and take you four and your bags to your rooms. Get yourselves situated, because I'll be waiting for you in my office."

"And God forbid we keep you waitin' too long, your highness," Joey muttered.

Inside of the imposing building, the four friends again paused to take in the magnificence of parquet floors, antique portraits along the walls, and a chandelier glittering with thousands of intricate crystals. As Kaiba purposefully strode up the grand staircase and disappeared around the corner, two servants in black tuxes came forth and greeted them; they relieved the friends of their luggage loads and guided them to the guest rooms on the ground floor.

"Sweet mother of…" Joey breathed in awe at the sight of the guys' bedroom, which could have contained three, maybe four of his rooms at home. Two king-sized beds with sheets of Egyptian cotton took up only a minor portion of the space. He flopped down onto the soft bedding and sighed in resignation to Tristan and Yugi, "People like Rich Boy don't deserve ta live like this."

"Oh, cool!" Téa's voice cheered from across the hall, "A whirlpool tub!"

"Like I said…"

After placing their bags onto the beds, the servants hurried the four friends upstairs and led them down the hallway's endless twists and turns to a pair of doors, bowing down respectfully as they entered. Arched windows lining the walls allowed the afternoon sunlight to freely stream inside; in the spaces between stood shelves of dark mahogany filled with scholarly books, topics ranging from financial accounting to computer programming. To the right of the room, Kaiba sat behind a desk, hands clasped together in wait. As soon as they entered, he stood up and motioned towards four seats that had been arranged in a half-circle before the desk. "Sit."

"What makes you think you can just order us around?" Joey angrily snapped. "Do I look like some kinda dog ta—" He immediately stopped and bit down on his lip.

"Dude, you almost walked right into that one," Tristan whispered with a small grin.

"Shaddup."

Once they'd sat down, Kaiba glanced up at the servants. "Leave now, and don't come back upstairs unless I send specific commands to do so."

With quick bows, the two servants pulled the doors shut.

Kaiba let out a long-awaited sigh of relief. "Now we can begin."

"So who's the nut-job, and what the heck is going on here?" Joey cried.

"Just listen for once, Wheeler," Kaiba snapped. With a deep breath, he calmly began: "Dr. Julian Moreau is a former employee of the Kaiba Corporation, well-known for his extensive knowledge in biology and mechanics. A particular interest in genetics led to the psycho to begin pursuing experiments in hybrid creation; at first he stuck to creating fusions between commonplace animals, but by the time I discovered his grotesque 'hobby,' he'd begun creating hybrids with humans amassed from Domino's homeless."

"Hold it!" Joey interjected. "That's the kinda crazy scandal that the media would love ta splash across headlines and break out on TV. Why are we just hearin' about it now?"

"The police were kind enough to acquiesce to my request to shush it up," Kaiba replied with a touch of bitterness from the interruption. "I didn't want this kind of stain on my company, and they didn't want the public to panic about a psychopath kidnapping people off the street and turning them into freaks."

"So, what about this situation, then?" Yugi asked. "We're not fused with animals, obviously; we've gained the power of our Duel Monsters. How did Moreau make that possible?"

Kaiba looked over Moreau's papers, now scattered across his desk, and glanced at his laptop's screen. "What you four have undergone is part of what the doctor's notes refer to as Project Essence. To answer your next question, I've determined that the name could refer to a philosophical idea of the true substance of an object, or the metaphysical idea of the spirit or soul. Either way, it's essentially what makes an item what it is, which includes any and all powers it possesses.

"Moreau wanted to move forward from fusing humans with animals to fusing them with Duel Monsters, but he obviously couldn't find those in any alley or pet shop. That's where the cards and the idea of an essence came in: Moreau figured that if he pushed his mechanical intelligence to its furthest limit, he could figure out a way to extract the essences of creatures from their likenesses."

"And obviously he succeeded," Joey concluded.

"Not quite," Kaiba shook his head. "The final version of the ray-gun which your four were hit with turned out differently than Moreau had intended, thanks to the help of two unknowns simply referred to as 'A' and 'K.' The role of the cards has been greatly diminished; they're not where Moreau actually gets the essence from."

The four stared at the CEO in disbelief. "But…our cards!" Yugi spoke up, "What happened to them if they weren't the sources of these essences?"

"They serve two purposes: One, the image on the card is scanned by a device inside the gun to determine exactly what essence needs to be brought out. And two, once the essence is extracted, it's sent into the card, which becomes a vessel for its containment; after that, the card is immediately converted into pure energy and sent into the ray-gun's target via its beams."

"But _where_ the heck did these essence thingies come from if they weren't pulled out of our cards?" Tristan demanded to know.

"That's where this gets interesting." Kaiba leaned forward and intently looked around at the four. "According to Moreau's notes, the essences are brought here via a 'dimensional transcendence device.'"

Joey blinked. "Uh, in English?"

The CEO sighed. "It's absolute insanity, but unfortunately I have no choice but to go along with it. A 'dimensional transcendence device' is, simply, a portal. Monsters' essences are being brought here via a doorway to another world."

Stunned silence filled the room. "What's in this…other world?" Yugi finally asked.

"What do you think?" Kaiba cocked an eyebrow. "Duel Monsters. Real, live Duel Monsters. After all, why get an essence from anything but its direct source?" He continued: "The portals in Moreau's ray-gun are small, self-contained ones that only remain open for a few seconds; however, he's planning on moving beyond those miniscule doorways for phase two of Project Essence. The exact details are vague, but basically Moreau wants to create—or, if possible, find—a portal which can take him directly to this world he's gotten limited access to. And after that, he's aiming for something in that world called Ciela."

"Timeout!" Joey bolted up from his seat and looked directly into Kaiba's steely eyes. He started ticking off his fingers: "A portal to another world. Real, live Duel Monsters beyond the portal to another world. Gainin' the ability to use the powers of these real, live Duel Monsters beyond the portal to another world. We all know exactly what you think of this kinda stuff: it's junk, B.S., a load of fairy tale crap that doesn't exist in any way, shape, or form_. _And now all of a sudden you absolutely _have _to believe in it? _Why?_"

Kaiba averted his gaze and snarled, "There's no reason you need to know."

"Are you kiddin'?!" Joey cried with childish delight. "Rich Boy's suddenly all for magic! I gotta know where the heck this came from!"

Soft buzzes hummed down from the ceiling as the lights in the room suddenly flickered on and off; in the instant they flashed, Kaiba quickly raised his hand to his right cheek, blocking it from their view.

_Again, he shields his face from us…_Pharaoh's voice addressed Yugi. _What is he attempting to hide?_

"My reasons are none of your business, Wheeler." Kaiba twisted around and stood up from his seat, focusing his gaze intently on the window behind his desk. "You're all free to go now; that's the extent of what I've discovered so far."

"Is this just a personal thing?" Joey persisted. "Just actin' nuts because you let that whack-job get away even though he did some freaky stuff that could've gotten your company thrown in the can?"

"Wheeler, _quiet!"_

The four friends started at the sound of Kaiba's voice. _Did you hear that? _Yugi cried to Pharaoh.

_That tone…_Pharaoh conceded. _Could it honestly be that Kaiba's…afraid of something?_

"Yeah, that's gotta be it," Joey nodded with a grin. "It's all just because a psycho almost caused a scandal but he's still runnin' free 'cause the 'great and powerful' Seto Kaiba only caught him when it was too late to do sh—."

A blast of electric bolts shimmering with white-hot energy thrust Joey across the room; as Yugi, Téa and Tristan leapt out of the lightning's way, the terrifying sound of shattering glass struck their ears.

"Joey!"

Acting on newfound instinct, Téa dashed towards the gaping hole the bolts had formed in the wall; as she jumped out, with a flash of gold, the feathery wings of Shining Friendship reappeared on her back. Yugi and Tristan ran to the charred opening and watched as their friends plunged towards the ground. Téa just managed to catch Joey's semi-conscious figure moments before it hit the lawn, her wings rapidly flapping under the strain to keep the two hovering in the air

A roar of pain shocked Yugi into twisting back around to face Kaiba. He gasped at the sight that met his eyes, now seeing clearly what Kaiba had kept trying to hide from them.

The CEO's right cheek had become glazed over with what appeared to be shimmering white skin that was gradually spreading across his face; against the ivory coating, his blue eyes shone like sapphire gems. Yugi watched in stunned horror as the hand Kaiba held out before him, surrounded with wisps of smoke from the lightning blast, similarly grew a white coating; as the shimmering skin crawled up to his fingertips, his nails elongated with sickening wrenches and sharpened into claws. "Stupid mutt…" An unearthly growl grew into an undertone of Kaiba's raspy voice; his gritted teeth were forced open as they grew into miniature yet brutish fangs. "Why can't he learn to _shut up?!"_

Yugi cried over his shoulder through the office wall's charred hole, "Téa, get Joey out of here! We'll try to keep Kaiba back!"

"But Yugi—"

"He can't fight right now! You've gotta hide him or he could be killed!"

A pause. Then, "Be careful…"

The slaps of feathered wings resignedly flying away reached Yugi just faintly under Kaiba's final, agonized roar of pain. With two sharp snaps, a pair of shimmering white wings burst forth from his back; spread to their full extent, their ending tips barely brushed against the walls of the office.

"Yug," Tristan's voice squeaked with fear, "what the heck is going on here?"

Yugi attempted to remain calm as he explained his startling realization: "It's the reason why Kaiba has no choice but to believe in this. Moreau fused him with the essence of the Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

Kaiba snarled at the two as though confirming Yugi's proclamation. He spread out his hands to his sides; two orbs of white lightning formed in his palms, crackling with angry energy. The moment he pulled his hands back, Pharaoh immediately took control of Yugi's body; he shoved Tristan onto the ground seconds after the orbs were flung forward, blazing heat and loose sparks grazing his face as they fell.

The two bursts of bolts smashed into the office wall, widening the charred entryway to the outdoors. Tristan winced as bits of plaster and shattered glass rained down upon them. "Why the hell is he attacking us?!"

Pharaoh looked up and directly into the CEO's eyes across the room. An unfamiliar gleam had come to the blue orbs; where he'd become accustomed to seeing steely coolness, there was now a terrifying glint of insane glee.

"I don't think his powers are entirely under his control…"


	9. Chapter Nine: The Beast Within

**Chapter Nine: The Beast Within**

Pharaoh brought himself up from the ground, tugging Tristan onto his feet as well by his jacket. The abomination that was the hybrid between Kaiba and Blue Eyes White Dragon watched with mild interest as Pharaoh held out his hand and the Dark Magician's staff spread forth in a flash of violet. Following his lead, Tristan held out both his hands and, with a quick burst of silver and a few whirs and clanks, Cyber Commander's machine gun materialized in his grasp, already loaded with an ammunition belt.

"Kaiba, listen to me," Pharaoh commanded, tightening his grip on his wand. "You can't allow this creature to continue controlling you; it's far too dangerous!"

The hybrid emitted a strange cross between a chuckle and a growl, shaking its head pitifully.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Tristan asked.

"I believe it means Kaiba isn't able to respond." Pharaoh narrowed his eyes at the hybrid. "This Blue Eyes White Dragon's essence has complete control."

Kaiba/Blue Eyes mockingly clapped in affirmation.

"That explains why he's not exactly chatty at the moment…" Tristan muttered.

Pharaoh shifted his staff to one hand and twisted its tip to face the Kaiba/Blue Eyes creature. "I don't understand why you're repressing Kaiba and forcing his body to attack us, but if you insist on continuing, I'll be tempted to free him from your control myself."

Kaiba/Blue Eyes simply sneered and turned its back to him.

"I'm guessing he's not interested in fighting us," Tristan deduced.

"Who or what is it that you want, then?" Pharaoh demanded to know.

Kaiba/Blue Eyes twisted back and, with a sly sneer, pointed out the charred opening. Though she'd managed to fly somewhat farther away, the flash of Téa's golden wings remained in view, rapidly flapping under the strain of the additional weight put on by Joey's limp figure.

"What do you want with my best buddy?!" Tristan cried, aiming the barrel of his firearm directly at the creature. "He just slammed Kaiba, not you!"

"I believe that's the point, Tristan," Pharaoh replied. "Kaiba's anger towards Joey is the reason why this creature manifested. These essence powers of ours have some sort of connection to our emotions; the greater our rage or concern or love, the more uncontrollable they become. It's the reason why Joey burst into flame after Kaiba made that remark about his father, for instance."

"So, that last comment Joey made _really _ticked Kaiba off, then?"

"So much so that the essence is now maintaining control over his body, and Kaiba has become a mere spectator inside his own self," Pharaoh nodded. Turning back to the hybrid, he snapped in conclusion, "And I suppose you wish to pursue Joey just to keep both Kaiba's rage and your control over him alive, don't you?"

The dragon hybrid flashed a fanged grin. He raised one hand into the air and snapped his fingers.

Glass shards rained down from the ceiling as the lights shattered, crackling electricity bursting out of their recesses. Bolts of lightning leapt from the former fixtures at Pharaoh and Tristan, thrusting the two off their feet and tossing them onto the ground. While lying stunned on the floor, Pharaoh watched as a wall of shimmering white swept before his vision. The accompanying rush of cool wind jolted him up to a sitting position; his eyes widened as they saw Kaiba/Blue Eyes rapidly gliding through the air, aiming at the golden wings flapping against the cerulean sky.

Pharaoh pushed himself up from the ground, wincing at the sharp shards that dug into his palms, and screamed out the opening, "Téa, look out!"

* * *

Téa glanced up from her unconscious friend, fearfully tightening the grip she had on the pits of his elbows. A soft sound had reached her ears, the mere brush of an echo passing by. _Pharaoh? _She caught just a hint of anxiety in his faint voice; was he sending her a warning?

"Ugh…"

The grunt from Joey's limp figure drew Téa's attention from the fading cry. She looked down and watched as Joey's eyes slowly fluttered open, dazedly glancing around before they met hers. "Didja get that truck's license plate?" he muttered.

"That wasn't a truck that hit you, Joey."

"Sure as hell felt like it."

A jagged crackle of white-hot electricity suddenly shot past the two. Téa shrieked as the lightning stung the bottom tip of her right wing, lurching down for a moment as the sharp pain drew her attention from flying. _White lightning…Kaiba's following us! _

"What the heck?!" Téa was suddenly tugged further downwards, narrowly dodging another lightning bolt that crashed past, as Joey squirmed with shock and horror in her arms. The downward lurch had finally brought to his attention the fact that they were flying far above the mansion's lawn.

"Joey, stop moving!" Téa chided him, "You're gonna slip right out of my hands!"

Obediently coming to a stop, he looked up at Téa and snapped, "What the heck are we doin' up here? What are we tryin' to fly away from?!"

Téa came to a hovering halt and pirouetted in the air, turning Joey to face the approaching creature his last insult had unleashed. "That."

Joey's eyes widened upon seeing the soaring CEO's face and hands covered with shimmering white skin, and his mouth curved up in a fanged, brutish grin. "Just when I thought Rich Boy couldn't get any uglier and nastier—"

"Joey!"

Kaiba/Blue Eyes' grin broadened, pleased by another insult to add to the real Kaiba's anger. It stretched out a palm towards him, a crackling orb of lightning forming in its center. Joey quickly glanced up at Téa and screamed, "Go! Go! Go!"

Téa twisted around and swiftly dove towards the ground; quick snaps of electricity rang in her ears as the orb of lightning thrust through the spot where she'd hovered moments before.

Joey heaved a sigh of relief. "That was way too clo—"

The end of his comment was lost under Téa's shriek as a jagged bolt of lightning crashed down before them, the mix of blinding light and searing heat much too close for comfort. Though it quickly vanished, she pivoted away from where the bolt had landed, only to be blasted with another rush of burning air from a second coming down inches from her face.

"Rich Boy!" Joey screamed up at Kaiba/Blue Eyes as another jagged bolt crashed down from behind, "You keep tryin' ta fry us and I'll burn you so bad hell will feel like paradise when you get there!"

* * *

The rapid pounding of Pharaoh's heart against his chest intensified as crashes of electricity rattled the mansion's walls. He tightened his grip on the silver and emerald staff. "Kaiba must have caught up with Joey and Téa!"

"Damnit," Tristan snapped, "where the hell is this place's exit?"

Pharaoh desperately glanced up and down the stretched-out hallway, aiming for even a spark of recollection as to which way they needed to go. In their blind panic for their friends, the two were continuously turning through the labyrinthine corridors only to find themselves facing doors at the end of short halls, not the open space before the grand staircase leading to the foyer and the outside.

"Aren't servants supposed to always be listening at doors or something?" Tristan hissed under his breath. "Where are they now that we need to get outta here?"

"Perhaps we should attempt to call them instead of losing ourselves entirely in this maze," Pharaoh suggested.

"Uh, wait a sec—I don't think we want them to see these." Tristan pointedly held up his machine gun.

"No, we don't."

In accordance with their desires, the Dark Magician's staff vanished in a flash of violet light, followed closely by the machine gun with a flash of silver and soft whirs and clicks. Pharaoh cupped his hands to his mouth and called down the corridor, "Is anyone down there?"

They waited. For a minute, the only response to Pharaoh's cry for help was the faint echo of his plea that quickly vanished down the corridor. Then, with a soft click and creak, a door further down the hall slowly swung open. A child with long, ash-colored hair peered around the doorway, his dark eyes wide with surprise.

"Mokuba!"

"Yugi?" Mokuba Kaiba stepped into the hall, slamming the door shut behind him. "How did you guys get here?"

"Your brother didn't tell you he was bringing us with him?"

Mokuba sadly shook his head. "Seto hasn't told me much of anything lately. He's been acting weird these last two days."

"Weird in what way? Has he taken up any strange habits?" Pharaoh's mind went back to Kaiba's perpetual shielding of his face from view.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since the night Kaiba Corp was attacked." Defiantly curling his hands into fists, he ranted with increasing speed: "I wanted to visit him in the hospital, but he told the doctors to not even let me come near his room! And when he called and told me he'd been released, I wanted to pick him up in the limo, but he practically screamed 'no' and told me to just come straight here on the next flight to California and lock myself up in my bedroom!"

"Did he tell you why?"

"He hung up when I asked." Mokuba looked directly into Pharaoh's eyes, the black orbs touched with a tinge of sadness. "You saw him, right? What's wrong with Seto? Why won't he even let me come near him?"

"Ah…Mokuba…" Pausing, searching for what on earth he could say, Pharaoh finally replied, "I don't think it's our place to explain it. All I can say is it's probably for the best that you stay away from him for the time being."

"No kidding," Tristan muttered under his breath.

Mokuba continued staring into the king's eyes, hoping they'd reveal what was wrong with his older brother. But Pharaoh wouldn't allow even a touch of worry to tinge his violet orbs.

"I knew it!" The two jumped, startled by Mokuba's sudden outburst. "I knew something was wrong that day! I should have ignored him when he told me to go home; I should have asked him what was going on the minute I saw him having his Blue Eyes put into the safe!"

"Mokuba, calm dow—" Pharaoh stopped. "Wait, what was that?"

"The cops came to Kaiba Corp that day before the attack," Mokuba explained. "After they left, Seto called me up to his office and told me that I just had to go home, no questions asked. When I was heading to the elevator to go back down and get my stuff, a guard came out of it and went straight down to Seto's office. I saw Seto give him a briefcase with his entire deck inside and tell him to lock it up before the doors slid shut. And I mean his _entire _deck—he put all three of his Blue Eyes on top before closing the case!" He sadly glanced down at the floor. "I just left because I knew the situation had to be serious if Seto was letting his Blue Eyes out of his sight."

"Kaiba put his three Blue Eyes into that case?" Pharaoh repeated.

Mokuba hesitated. "Well…I was all the way down the hall and didn't get that good a look…" Deep in thought for a few moments, he finally nodded with self-assurance and concluded, "But Seto took them right out of his jacket, and those three are the only ones he keeps that close to him all the time!"

_But…how…_Pharaoh was utterly baffled. _How did Moreau fuse Kaiba with the Blue Eyes White Dragon if he didn't even have his Blue Eyes—_

_"It swiped my Blue Eyes White Dragon card…"_

_"Just go back home and tell the old coot that his card went towards a good cause."_

"My God…" Pharaoh murmured to himself. "That essence's hostility…it all makes sense now…"

Mokuba blinked in confusion. "What makes sense?"

Snapping out of his reverie, Pharaoh cried, "Please, Mokuba, can you direct us to the front door? It's extremely important!"

"Uh..." Puzzled with the seemingly random question, Mokuba pointed down the hall, "Around that corner, second left, then first right, but—what's wrong?"

He yelped as Pharaoh quickly brushed past him, with Tristan following on his heels. The King of Games called over his shoulder, "Don't worry, Mokuba! I think I know just what's wrong with your brother now!"

Mokuba stared after them as they twisted around the corner and vanished. Only after their footsteps had faded did he finally snap out of his shock and realize aloud, "Why are you heading outside? Isn't Seto in his office?"

As Pharaoh and Tristan dashed down the grand staircase, their weapons reappearing in their grasps in flashes of violet and silver, Tristan cried out, "Yug, do you seriously know what's wrong with Kaiba?"

Pharaoh nodded. "This situation has been so startling that it made us forget the reason why we went to Kaiba Corp that night in the first place!"

"What's this have to do with that doctor's freaky henchman stealing Grandpa's Blue—?" Tristan froze at the mansion's pair of front doors, a light of realization dawning in his eyes. "Wait, you mean…" He frowned in bewilderment. "But that matters?"

"Absolutely." Pharaoh shoved one of the mahogany doors open, stepping into the afternoon sunlight. "I'll explain after we help Joey and Téa; we must find them before that essence can—"

_Smack! _A golden-winged figure was flung onto the mansion's walkway, wisps of smoke rising from its feathers. Pharaoh and Tristan dashed forward and quickly knelt beside Téa's limp figure; Pharaoh lifted Téa to a sitting position, staining his hand with crimson lifeblood as it touched an oozing burn on her shoulder.

"Ahh…" Téa glanced up at him, a dazed glaze spread over her eyes. "Pharaoh?"

"Téa, what happened? Where's Joey?" Pharaoh cried.

Téa weakly lifted her arm and pointed at a shimmering white and orange speck jerking across the sky. "Kaiba…I tried hiding in the clouds until you guys came, but he just flew out in front of us and fired…Joey was so ticked he jumped right out of my hands and latched onto him…"

While Pharaoh and Tristan each lifted one of Téa's arms around his neck and helped her to her feet, the three watched the shape of ivory and flame swoop down from the sky, crashing just a few feet away into the expanse of verdant blades. Joey sat up on his knees on Kaiba/Blue Eyes' chest, removing the arm he'd locked around its neck to steady his shaky grasp on Flame Swordsman's towering blade. He wildly waved the sword above Kaiba/Blue Eyes' face. "Stay down, ya goddamn freaky fusion thing!"

With a feral snarl, Kaiba/Blue Eyes reached up and grabbed Joey's sword as it swung by; the blade rang against the pearl-white skin on his palms, leaving not even a nick on the ivory coating. He tossed the blade and its wielder above his head, slamming Joey flat on his back onto the lawn.

In the moments Joey lay stupefied on the ground, Kaiba twisted onto his front and pushed himself onto his feet, bringing his spread-out wings into his back like a shimmering white cloak. He thrust an open palm towards Joey's sprawled figure, a crackling bolt of electricity bursting forth. Joey yelped and quickly rolled away, the lightning singeing the patch of grass where he'd laid ashy black.

Using his sword for support, Joey brought himself up from the ground. When he looked up at Kaiba/Blue Eyes, he narrowed his eyes at the sight of a fanged grin on his shimmering face. "You think this crap you're pulling on us is _funny?"_

The creature let out a strange cross between a snicker and a growl in response.

"You sonuva…" Joey pointed his blade at Kaiba, a fiery spark bursting out of its tip and spreading all the way down to the hilt. Feigning a yawn, Kaiba/Blue Eyes opened his palm and an orb crackling with searing white electricity appeared in its center.

"Joey, wait!" Pharaoh cried as Joey raised his blade, "That's not really Kaiba attacking you, it's the Blue Eyes essence!"

Joey froze, sword poised directly above his head. "What? Lemme get this straight—Rich Boy's gone, but now this thing's here and tryin' ta kill us instead?" He snarled. "There's one dream of mine shot ta hell…"

"Kaiba hasn't disappeared in entirety, Joey; he's being repressed by the Blue Eyes White Dragon essence. His anger towards you is allowing it to maintain control!"

"Anger towards _m__e? _Rich Boy's the one that ticks me off! What'd I do ta make him so…" He stopped as the memory of what happened before he'd been knocked out rushed back to him. "Oh. The whole 'you let the psycho get away' thing…"

Kaiba/Blue Eyes sneered and pulled the electric orb back.

"Whoa! Wait a sec!" Joey lowered his blade to the ground, hissing in anger and resignation. _I hate Kaiba's guts, but I'm not gonna sink so low that I'll thrash him ta bits while he's under this nut's control._ "Rich Boy, I fess up, all right? Rubbing that mistake of yours in your face was just plain nasty, so forget I ever said it. Now chill out before this essence thingie does something that you're gonna regret!"

"Seto!"

Everyone twisted to face the mansion as Mokuba's anxious voice floated out the front door Pharaoh had left open in his rush to Téa, followed by approaching clacks of hurried footsteps on parquet wood. As though the child's cry had struck him, Kaiba/Blue Eyes lurched back and slammed onto all fours, concealing his shimmering face from view by turning it towards the ground.

As Mokuba rushed out the open doorway, Tristan lunged one hand at him and Pharaoh screamed, "Mokuba, wait!" The little one simply dodged Tristan's outstretched arm and went straight to his older brother's curled-up figure, so focused on reaching Seto that he didn't even notice the weapons grasped in the others' hands or the wings curled into Téa's or his brother's back.

"Seto!" Mokuba came to a jolting stop before Kaiba's kneeling figure, slamming onto his knees in order to meet his eyes. "Seto, I know something's wrong! You had your Blue Eyes locked up, you wouldn't let me see you when you got out of the hospital, and your office is a total wreck! Seto, I'm worried about you, and I know you'd be freaking out too if something happened to me! Please just tell me what's wrong!"

Silence. Then, slowly, deliberately, Kaiba/Blue Eyes lifted his head and looked directly into Mokuba's eyes. Mokuba gasped at the glimmer of white scales, and the terrifying fanged grin etched across his brother's face, his blue eyes shimmering with crazed joy.

"S-Seto?" Mokuba trembled with horrific realization that this creature was _not_ his brother.

Kaiba/Blue Eyes lunged out his free hand and snatched Mokuba by the collar of his shirt, standing up so that the child's feet dangled above the ground. Mokuba desperately clawed at the iron grip, but Kaiba/Blue Eyes simply snickered at the feeble attempts to scratch through the shimmering white scale around his hand.

"Let go of him!" Pharaoh cried, pointing Dark Magician's staff at the hybrid.

Kaiba/Blue Eyes twisted around and thrust the younger Kaiba directly in the staff's path. With the hand still grasped around a crackling orb, he lifted a finger and wagged it at Pharaoh, his tongue clicking out a 'tsk, tsk' in mock disappointment.

Pharaoh snarled and lowered his staff. This beast, he had to remind himself, was aiming to torture Kaiba, and wouldn't hesitate to use his younger brother as a human shield.

"Hey! Rich Boy!" In desperation, Joey pulled down an eyelid and stuck his tongue out at Kaiba/Blue Eyes. _"Pbbbt_. Why doncha come back and face me, ya bratty freak?!"

Kaiba/Blue Eyes didn't even bat an eye at his insult. He had no need for the true Kaiba's anger towards Joey to sustain him anymore. He'd found a much greater source of rage and worry: The mere thought of someone inflicting harm on Mokuba Kaiba.

Sneering, Kaiba/Blue Eyes again pulled his hand back, aiming the electrical orb at Mokuba Kaiba's heart.

"Seto…" Mokuba's tears splashed onto the white skin around the hand that clutched him. "Please don't…"

Kaiba/Blue Eyes brought the orb down.


	10. Chapter Ten: Eventually

**Chapter Ten: Eventually**

Kaiba/Blue Eyes roared in pain as his arm twisted inwards and thrust the electric orb directly into his own chest, searing through his shirt and scorching the white skin beneath. Joey, Tristan and Téa stared in surprise as he staggered forward and smacked onto the ground on one knee, somehow managing to maintain a firm grasp on Mokuba's collar. The younger Kaiba himself was transfixed in horror on his brother's hidden wound, a rivulet of blood trickling down the hand pressed into it.

Only Pharaoh could see what had seemingly possessed Kaiba/Blue Eyes to injure himself. The translucent spirit of Seto Kaiba—the real Seto Kaiba—had manifested behind his possessed body in the seconds it was lowering the ball of white lightning. The spirit had grabbed at his body's arm and thrust it and the orb it held inwards, wincing as the white lightning dug into his physical form's chest. Now, as the hybrid knelt on the ground clutching its wound, Kaiba's spirit leaned towards its ear and hissed, "I don't give a damn if you're the essence of a Blue Eyes White Dragon—you won't touch one hair on my brother's head. I'll kill us both before I let that happen."

Kaiba/Blue Eyes turned towards the otherworldly voice and snarled in response.

"Uh, could someone please tell me what the heck just happened?" Joey broke the silence maintained for those who weren't tuned into the spiritual realm.

"Kaiba's spirit is here," Pharaoh explained. "He forced the Blue Eyes to injure his own physical form to save Mokuba from harm."

"S-Seto?" Mokuba shivered uncontrollably as he looked up from the concealed wound into Kaiba's body's eyes, the sapphires orbs against the white skin dimmed with daze. "You're still in there somewhere?"

Snarling in defiance, Kaiba/Blue Eyes tried to pull its hand away from the burn, sparks starting to erupt from its palm. Kaiba's spirit quickly shoved it back into the wound, both he and his possessed body wincing as the tiny bursts of electricity added small stings to already burning pain. "Hell…no," Kaiba's spirit weakly snapped.

_This can't continue for much longer, _Pharaoh thought. _If it does, Kaiba, the Blue Eyes essence, Mokuba—one of them will definitely be killed. _He narrowed his eyes at the beast in determination. _This creature must be confronted now if there's to be even remote hope of bringing it under control. _

"Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

Kaiba/Blue Eyes turned towards Pharaoh and emitted a hiss of anger.

"There's no need for hostility." Pharaoh slowly neared the fused creature, fixing an unwavering gaze onto its blue eyes. "I don't actually want to fight you, Blue Eyes. And from past experience dueling your representation, I know that you're too proud and glorious a creature to yearn to harm us either."

The hybrid looked away as Pharaoh knelt down beside it. "Listen to me," he persisted, "I believe I understand why you're being so vicious, but I need you to confirm whether or not my assumptions are correct. Simple yes or no questions are all that I'd like to ask you. Would you be willing to answer those, at least?"

Pressing silence cut by a brush of the outdoor's wind settled for a few minutes. Then, Kaiba/Blue Eyes gave Pharaoh a growl of agreement, though it still refused to meet his gaze.

"Good. Now, then: You're aware of a game called Duel Monsters?"

Kaiba/Blue Eyes responded with a short nod.

"The cards in this game are based off entities from your realm, yes?"

Another nod.

"Would I be correct assuming that the bond between the beings in your world and the representations of them in Duel Monsters is closer than we're aware?"

The creature hesitated before emitting a slow growl of assent.

"So in fact, each and every one of the cards, even the so-called duplicates featuring seemingly identical creatures, is based off a distinct entity from your realm?" Pharaoh pressed on. "And if I were to, say, place two Blue Eyes White Dragon cards before you, you could point at each one and tell me about the Blue Eyes from your realm portrayed on its picture, about its specific personality and tendencies?"

The hybrid had narrowed its eyes as Pharaoh mentioned the assumed 'other' Blue Eyes. Curtly it nodded in response.

"Then you, specifically…you are the fourth Blue Eyes White Dragon?"

Kaiba/Blue Eyes lashed its free hand out at him. Pharaoh ducked and just narrowly averted a slash of sharp claws across his face.

"Why you little—" Joey's aura erupted into flame and he menacingly stepped towards the creature, tightening his grip on his sword's hilt.

"No, Joey, it's all right," Pharaoh quickly held up a hand to stop him. "I should have realized that's not a title the Blue Eyes enjoys having attached to it."

The hybrid growled in confirmation.

Undeterred by the sudden attack, Pharaoh continued his interrogation: "Your realm has four Blue Eyes White Dragons including yourself, yes? The representations of the other three are the renowned Blue Eyes of the deck belonging to the one you now possess. And I assume that because of that distinction, they have received a good deal of fame and glory in your realm as well. Meanwhile, your representation has become merely part of a display in a Game Shop. No honor and glory can be found there. You've yearned for something better to happen to your card; specifically, you wanted it to become the fourth Blue Eyes in Kaiba's deck and to therefore earn yourself respect by the association."

The beast said nothing.

"Then, one day, you found out that Kaiba had obtained your card. What had he done with it? He'd torn it in half and tossed it away as though it was a piece of trash. Your representation apparently wasn't worthy of becoming a member of his deck. God-like glory was reserved for the designated trio only; for no justifiable reason, your card, and you yourself, were deemed unfit for an honorable distinction."

Kaiba/Blue Eyes' sapphire eyes snapped shut. Pharaoh gave a wan nod of understanding as tears streaked down its shimmering white skin. "So the moment you discovered that you'd entered Kaiba's body, you decided to retaliate against his apparent declaration of your inferiority by refusing to let him have any sort of control over your abilities?"

The creature choked out a growl of quick assent.

Pharaoh shook his head. "Vengeance is never the answer to your problems, Blue Eyes. Don't you realize what you've done by lashing out at us? You've completed a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy; by lashing out at the people around Kaiba without care, you've created an image of yourself as nothing but a rabid brute in everyone's eyes. And you know yourself that you're a far more honorable creature than one of that mindless sort."

"Mmm…" The hybrid slowly nodded.

"So, then, why continue to cause such cruel harm?"

A pause. Then, everyone let out sighs of relief as Kaiba/Blue Eyes finally released its firm grip on Mokuba's shirt; the child took a few steps back on the path, warily eying his brother's possessed form.

"Thank you, Blue Eyes," Pharaoh smiled. "I assume you apologize for the harm and worry you've caused?"

With downcast sapphire eyes, the hybrid nodded.

"Good." Pharaoh glanced past Kaiba/Blue Eyes into the translucent sapphire eyes of the CEO's spirit. "I believe this is an optimal opportunity, then, for you to also atone for your actions?"

"You can't be serious," Kaiba snapped. "This beast took control of my body, trashed my office, almost harmed Mokuba—and you expect me to _apologize_ to it?"

"I stated before and now state again, Kaiba, that I don't condone the Blue Eyes' act of vengeance," Pharaoh replied. "Your violent act against its card and the subsequent misery it felt because of that act, however, doesn't make you an entirely innocent party in this. You should make amends, especially if you want this newfound relationship with the Blue Eyes' essence to be tolerable while it lasts."

Before Kaiba's spirit could lash out in response, Mokuba called towards the Blue Eyes, "Seto?" He turned and faced his younger brother, sucking in a shocked breath at the sight of Mokuba shaking and sobbing. "Seto, please…" the young child pleaded. "I don't want to lose you to something else's control. Just apologize, Seto, please…"

"Mokuba…"

Snarling in resignation, Kaiba looked back at the Blue Eyes White Dragon and started rapidly hissing into its ear. "I didn't tear your card in half because I thought it wasn't 'worthy enough' to be in my deck, all right? I've grown attached to your glorious breed. Like Yugi said, Blue Eyes are a key part of my deck, and I didn't want anybody else using your card to share in their glory, so when I found out that his old man had that fourth Blue Eyes White Dragon and wouldn't give it up, I had to—"

Kaiba/Blue Eyes interrupted his lengthy explanation with a growl of frustration.

"Um, Yug, Kaiba's spirit is trying to apologize, isn't he?" Tristan asked.

"In a way, yes."

"Then why does that thing still look so ticked?"

"Well, knowin' Kaiba, I can take a guess," Joey interjected. He yelled towards the hybrid, "Hey, Rich Boy! Here's a hint to what this essence wants you ta say: Starts with 'I'm,' and ends with 'sorry.'"

"Argh…" Kaiba's spirit clenched his hands into fists and angrily shook in place with for a few moments before he finally snapped to the Blue Eyes essence, "Look, you're well aware that I'm not the nicest guy, but let me tell you something: I am a man of my word. And I promise you, I _will_ make amends for what I did to your card. I _will _atone for ripping it in half and making you feel like you were an 'inferior' dragon compared to the other Blue Eyes. Just agree to give me back my body, let me control your powers if I need them, God forbid, and keep your hands off of Mokuba, all right?"

Kaiba/Blue Eyes now emitted a thoughtful growl and closed its eyes to ponder the request.

"Pharaoh, what happened?" Téa murmured.

"Kaiba avowed to eventually make up for what he did to the Blue Eyes' representation," Pharaoh explained.

"Eventually?" Tristan scoffed.

"I suggest that Blue Eyes agrees ta that, 'cause it's probably the best it's gonna get," Joey said.

After a seemingly eternal period of consideration, Kaiba/Blue Eyes finally gave a short nod of acquiescence. Pharaoh stepped back to his friends as Seto Kaiba's spirit suddenly vanished. In the same instant, the shimmering white Blue Eyes scales slowly retreated from his face and hands, revealing the pink flesh hidden underneath. The sharp claws wrenched back into Kaiba's body's hands and smoothed out into ordinary fingernails.

Mokuba gasped as jagged white lightning shot up the wings affixed to his brother's back, engulfing them in blinding light. As soon as they had appeared, the bolts vanished, leaving not even a trace of the shimmering appendages behind.

Everyone watched with bated breaths as Kaiba's eyes slowly opened; they rapidly blinked as though he'd just stepped into the afternoon sunlight. After glancing around aimlessly, the sapphire orbs met Mokuba's dark, widened eyes.

"Seto?" Mokuba hesitated.

A rare smile slowly crept onto Kaiba's face. "It's all right, Mokuba. Everything's under control now."

Tears of relief started flowing down the child's cheeks. "Seto!" Mokuba laughed as he leapt forward and wrapped his arms around his brother.

The four friends smiled as Kaiba and Mokuba became locked in a tearful embrace of reunion. Pharaoh saw Yugi's face appear in the back of his mind, grinning with joy and relief. _Way to go, partner._

_Thank you. _Pharaoh closed his eyes and allowed Yugi to regain control of his body; peace was finally setting in again, further proven by the manifestations of the essences vanishing in flashes of violet, fire, silver and gold.

Yugi reopened his eyes at the moment Kaiba and Mokuba pulled out of their embrace. Kaiba stood and walked directly up to the four friends, calm determination again settling on his face and one hand clutched over the wound on his chest. Fixing his cool gaze on Yugi, he curtly asked, "How did you know?"

"Know what?"

"If Moreau's notes are true and not just deluded rants, then that Blue Eyes essence came from another dimension. Yet in spite of that vast distance between its place and ours, it knew that I'd torn the card representing it in half. How did you know that it knew something it shouldn't have?"

Yugi hesitated. "I…well, I just took a guess based on what I was told."

"Told by who?"

Yugi sighed. Considering that the others hadn't indicated that they'd communicated with their Duel Monster's essences, the answer was going to be a bit of a surprise to all of them. "The Dark Magician."

Everyone stared at him in shock. "You _talked _to the Dark Magician?" Tristan cried. "When?!"

"Only once, when our powers first came out back in the hospital parking lot," Yugi explained. "When he spoke to me, he mentioned that he'd let me use his powers because I'd treated his card with respect. I assumed back then that he just knew that because his essence had come directly from my Dark Magician card. But when you told us that these essences were coming from a completely different world," he glanced at Kaiba, "I realized that the Dark Magician shouldn't possibly have known about the relationship between me and its card…and it did anyway."

"But how, man?" Joey pressed. "How could that Dark Magician or that Blue Eyes know what things were like between you and Kaiba and their cards?" He paused. Then, horrified, he clutched both his hands to his head. "Aw, crap, maybe they're reading our minds while they're inside us!"

"Wheeler, for once don't be such an idiot." As Téa and Tristan held Joey back from lunging at Kaiba, he calmly continued: "If they'd found out about the relationships by looking through our thoughts, then the Blue Eyes essence would have known I tore up Yugi's old man's card because I wanted no one else to have it, not because I thought for some unknown reason that it was inferior to the three in my deck. No, their information is coming from a more indirect source, like—" He stopped.

"Like what?" Yugi pressed him.

Kaiba muttered something under his breath that sounded like "Damn Moreau" before he finished, "A portal such as the one Moreau's looking for. A gateway through which monsters that could pass themselves off as humans come in here, get news about Duel Monsters in this world, and get out."

Joey grinned. "Could you say that again, Rich Boy?" he cupped one hand to his ear. "I didn't quite catch it the first time."

The CEO growled, a hint of the Blue Eyes essence revealing itself through his anger. "I'd tell you to stop looking like a stupid mutt, Wheeler, but I realize how futile that is."

Ignoring the fiery aura that erupted around a livid Joey, Kaiba strode past the four friends and up the mansion's front steps with Mokuba on his heels. He stopped at the front door and glanced over his shoulder, calling out instructions: "I'll see if I can glean any more information from Moreau's lab notes and files about these portals. If you're correct, Yugi, then there must be a gateway somewhere leading to this realm of Duel Monsters, and we have to find it before Moreau does. In the meantime, you four just go and enjoy the pool or something. I'll inform you about anything else I've discovered at dinner; it's served at eight in the dining hall, so don't be late."

Joey snarled at Kaiba's back as he entered the mansion. "Damn jerk. Where's he get off talkin' to us like we're just a bunch of stupid kids?"

"Chill out, Joey; complaining about that brat is a waste of time," Tristan chided him. "Besides, he just told us we can use the pool."

"Yeah, true." Joey grinned. "And heck, lookin' at the size of this place and all the riches practically oozin' out of it, it's probably Olympic-sized with its own water slides and lifeguard and snack bar."

"I call dibs on that last part!" Tristan dashed up towards the mansion, Joey trailing close behind while hotly snapping at him to slow down. Téa sighed at the sight of their childish chase and murmured, "This is why I need female friends…"

Yugi smiled. _Well, looks like things are getting back to normal for now._

_Yes, _Pharaoh's voice conceded, _but for how long? I feel without a doubt that there's an entrance to the realm of Duel Monsters somewhere in this world, and that we'll have to go through it in order to return the essences to their owners._

Yugi sighed. _Knowing our luck, I wouldn't doubt it. There's still the big question, though: If the portal really exists…where is it?_

* * *

After receiving the inspirational talk, I'd become determined to find the missing piece of his soul. I'd begun by simply clasping his limp hand in mine, holding back my tears as I touched deceptive warmth. Shutting my eyes, I focused on the center of the powerful energy I possessed, willed it to flow up through my arm and into his body. I'd peeked for just a moment to ensure that my powers had gone through and saw his form had become surrounded with a mystic aura of my own energy's hue.

Nodding, I had shut my eyes again and simply focused. Focused on his powers which I knew so well, on his serious but kindhearted nature, even on the cute accent he'd obtained from his time amidst desert sands. Part of his spirit was still here—after all, his body remained alive, even if it was becoming more and more of an empty shell—and if I focused my energy on connecting with it, perhaps I could go beyond the remnants to the parts being stolen away.

And so I had remained by his bedside, my hand squeezing his, my magic transcending the physical limits of his body in order to connect with the entirety of his soul.

I had been trying to make the connection for what seemed like an eternity. Then, for just a minute, I was pulled forward by an unseen force. The cool floor pressing into my knees seemed to give way; I was hovering in empty space, held up in some strange void. I attempted to open my eyes, but the lids remained firmly stuck together, as though acting on another's volition.

He was there! I could feel his presence swirling around me, so awe-inspiring yet softened with the touch of familiarity. I was so overjoyed I could only cry out dumbly, "Hello?"

Eagerly I waited, but I received no response, not even a turn of the presence towards me. What was wrong? Couldn't he speak to me?

"Answer me, please!" I cried. "I know that you're here; I can feel it! Please…"

Still no response, but I suddenly sensed another presence amidst his, floating amongst him, mixing with his incredible power…I had no doubt that it was the one who'd stolen his spirit. Before I could gain control over myself, I lashed out at the unknown presence, my speech hurrying and crescendoing with each passing word: "Thief! I know that you're here, too. You listen to me: You've taken something that doesn't belong to you, you heartless usurper. I'm going to find you, and when I do, I'll make you give back what you stole! You will pay for this. Do you hear me? _You will pay!"_

My body lurched backwards. Hard tile rushed up into my knees, thudding dully against them. My eyes easily opened to reveal almost the same scene they'd last viewed before shutting: His form sprawled atop the bed, outline shimmering with the shade of my energies, limp hand in mine.

But the aura had dimmed, and my firm grip on his hand had relaxed. I suddenly slumped forward, my head plopping onto an empty space on his mattress. For the first time, I realized that I'd been using the full extent of my powers without cease for what must have been hours straight. Now I was tired…so tired…

"No…" Tears swarmed my heavy eyes, clouding my feeble attempt to tighten my grasp on his hand. "I came so close…please, let me find you again…"

No use. Slumber won over me, and I saw the shimmering aura blink off in the same instant my eyes shut.

I was next aware of a pair of hands shaking my shoulder, and a voice whispering into my ear, "_Señorita? _Are you all right?"

"Mmm…" I opened my eyes and turned my head to see my interlocutor from before kneeling beside me, eyes wide with concern. I knew he sensed that I was exhausted; determined to remain by the bedside, however, I simply smiled and whispered, "Yes, I'm fine. I was just resting for a bit, that's all."

"Nice try," he cocked one eyebrow. "You've been using your magic at full power since I left, haven't you?"

I said nothing.

My interlocutor sighed. "_Amiga mìa, _when I said your powers were comparable to his, I didn't mean you needed to completely exhaust them in order to find him." He grasped my arm and lifted my weary limbs up from the bedside and floor, placing my arm around his shoulders as support. "Come now, you're too tired to continue for the moment; you need a decent meal and a nap."

"But what about him…?" I murmured as he dragged my limp figure towards the door. "He needs my help…"

"All of us need you to be in best form for finding him, _señorita_." His eyes narrowed. "Especially because our problems have begun to multiply."

The comment sunk into my mind and jolted my body into alertness. "What happened? Have more been drained?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but…" He hesitated. "We, um, have a small problem with our doorway."

My heart almost immediately began pounding with terror. Not wanting to believe what he was implying, I dumbly asked, "Which doorway?"

"The one that's supposed to only be operable with his magic?" he jerked his thumb back to the figure in the one bed. "It's open."

"What?!"

"No need to worry just yet," he reassured me. "It's just a pinprick of light. You could only notice it if you were looking closely."

"How did this happen?"

"The only explanation I can think of is the one now holding the missing part of him must be in the vicinity of the doorway on its other side. Considering the size of the opening, though, they can't possibly be that close—perhaps just in the same country or state."

"That's still too near for me." I attempted to twist around, but he held fast onto my arm.

"_Señorita, _I repeat, you won't be of much use when operating while weary. Trust me, if you want to ascertain he gets the best help he needs, you _must _rest for a little while."

I sighed. "I know, I know, but I hate the idea of the doorway being open, even if it is by just a crack."

"None of us like it, _amiga mìa,_" he murmured sympathetically. "But the guard will do all it can to keep the thief from going far in here if, gods forbid, they happen to find it. Hopefully their powers will be enough to keep his at bay."

Hopefully? How could they hope to defeat the thief? They were in possession of the powers, the very spirit, of one of the greatest spell-casters ever known in this realm. Attempting to defeat him or her if they came with those abilities would be…would be…

I was surprised that the idea suddenly sprang into my tired mind. Then again, perhaps only my weariness would permit me to even think such a thing. And the more I thought of it, the more rational it seemed.

"_Señorita?_" My interlocutor stared at me curiously; I was certain my eyes shone with the light of inspiration. "What are you thinking?"

"I've changed my mind," I replied matter-of-factly. "I want the thief to reach the doorway. Yes, I realize that sounds like insanity," I hurried to add as he stopped with stone-cold shock, "but consider this: If the thief currently possesses the missing part of his spirit, we wouldn't need to use up so much time and energy searching for it anymore. The thief could come here, we could hopefully incapacitate him or her before they could try to pull anything on us, and while they're out cold his spirit could be restored to his body with my powers' help!"

"_Amiga mìa—_"

"I'm well aware that the idea's dangerous," I interrupted before he could give me a lecture, "but what other choice do we have? I attempted to find his spirit's missing part using all of my power; I felt his presence for less than a minute before I lost it again. A master spell-caster might know a way to restore his soul to wholeness, but our sole resident one is out-cold on that bed and there aren't any others around for miles. And let's not imagine the havoc we'd cause if we attempted to send monsters through the doorway to find the one carrying his soul."

He blinked. His gaze strayed from my face and became lost in serious thought.

"Please," I weakly pleaded, "it might be our only chance. Don't you think it's viable?"

After a long pause for his pondering, he finally admitted, "All right, I agree that the idea has some potential. _But_ it hinges a bit too much on chance occurrences. First the thief would have to find the portal, and like I said before, they're much too far away at the moment to even have hope of discovering it by accident. Then if the thief arrived, the doorway still wouldn't open all the way; they'd have to somehow find out the final spell that needs to be cast in order for it to be rendered passable. And finally, once we've defeated the thief…well, we'd have to hope that we're not too late."

"We won't be too late."

"Time hasn't slowed down, _amiga mìa,"_ he softly responded. "With every passing moment the essence remains in the thief, it grows more and more attached to her or him. And when it's rendered totally inseparable—well, only someone skilled in magical arts could perhaps figure out means of separation without killing someone off."

"Don't talk like that!" I suddenly snapped at him. "We'll find a way to bring all of his spirit back to his body, even if it takes us until the end of time!" I glanced upwards, seeing in my mind's eye beyond the marble ceiling the indigo sky dusted with starlight. "No gods would be so cruel that they'd just let him die without a fight."

"I do hope that you're right." He continued towards the door, my feet shuffling as he dragged me along with my arm wrapped around his shoulder.

"Anyway…what's your final verdict?" I asked.

He sighed. "If the one possessing his spirit eventually nears the doorway, I'll agree to your plan, I suppose. You'll have to figure out how to guide her or him straight to it and get the opening spell into their head, though."

I nodded. "I'll ask the gods for a flash of inspiration while I rest."

"May they hear you and put your request under 'rush job' status, _señorita._"

Before we could exit, I turned and cast a final glance over my shoulder at the one figure lying atop the hospital bed. He looked as though he was merely sleeping, like a wearied child.

I smiled. In my mind, I whispered words of reassurance towards his soul: _Wherever you are, don't worry. I'll make sure that my plan pans out. I _will_ bring your spirit's piece back before time runs out. I promise…_


	11. Chapter Eleven: Stopped by a Spell

**Chapter Eleven: Stopped by a Spell**

The furthest outskirts of Kosaka had once contained a bustling industrial district. The roads, hazy with smog and smoke, had been filled with sounds of machines whirring and clanking as they chugged out various wares. After the mechanical interludes, factory workers had shuffled down the streets, happy to simply chat after hours of back-breaking labor. Now there was no clatter of machines, no relieved murmurs amidst weary workers. Only the ghosts of former factories imposed upon the empty roads, dusty brick buildings with shattered windows and warehouses whose wood had weathered to a musty grey shade long ago.

The district's shabby appearance hadn't deterred Moreau from utilizing one former warehouse as his third makeshift lab. Twice his biological lab had been discovered while he'd tried to live amidst the blasted public that was…_repulsed_ by the beautiful creations they'd become if his plan succeeded. He wouldn't make the same mistake a third time; an area away from humanity's prying eyes was the only way the perfect race would become a reality.

Now Moreau sat at a rickety metal table in the center of the warehouse, twisting the final screws for his latest creation into place. The _clickety-clack_ of a keyboard faintly reached his ears every so often. Nikki was sitting at the makeshift desk in the corner, searching the internet on his laptop for news of interest from the outside world. Plato watched over her shoulder, supervising her search to ascertain that she wouldn't waste time on gaming and gossip sites.

A shower of loose sawdust smattered the barrel of the firearm in Moreau's grasp. He let out one quick hiss of frustration, then continued with his work, refusing to be deterred by a minor annoyance. Enough time had already been lost today with the fruitless search for Yugi Muto and his friends. Where they'd disappeared to, even their guardians didn't know. Well, maybe the old coot knew, but all that he'd told them was some hackneyed excuse that his grandson had probably gone out for a jar of olives.

Finally, the last screw held tightly to the device. Moreau eagerly dropped the screwdriver with a short _clank_ and lovingly ran his freed hand up and down the silver body of his latest ray-gun. As his fingertips slid atop a glass dome affixed to the barrel's far end, its enclosed space filled with a swirling white substance, he paused to savor the pulsation of the mystical energy against his palm. It was only half of the magic that had been contained in his essence fusion device, but the ray-gun was specifically designed to harness and drain every last piece of power that it contained. With enough energy and a bit of luck, it had potential for creating a portal to the Duel Monsters' realm.

Smiling, Moreau slid back from his work table. The screeches of his metal chair's legs against the concrete floor drew Plato's attention from the laptop. Nikki remained transfixed to the screen, the squeals barely registering in her mind as she remained in a searching reverie.

"Is the device ready, master?" Plato inquired.

"Yes, Plato," Moreau replied as he stood, cradling his latest creation in his hands. "I finally believe I've come up with the right mixture of mechanics and magic to form a portal straight to the realm of Duel Monsters."

"Are you certain that half of the magic from your fusion device will be sufficient, master? The other realm of monsters and magic almost radiates with power that could counteract your attempt to enter it. Why not use the entirety of the magic to ascertain success?"

"Absolutely not," Moreau snapped. "With all of its magic gone, the most beautiful of my inventions would become completely worthless. It's far better to take this risk with a mere half of its power."

"If you say so, master," Plato shrugged.

"Now, then…" Moreau glanced around the dilapidated building. "Which spot would suffice for testing this newborn's abilities?" His gaze came to a rest on an empty portion of a warehouse wall. Smiling, he raised his rifle and aimed its barrel at the weathered wood. "There could be a good place for a portal…"

"Ah, I'd advise against firing at a wall, master," Plato bolted up from his crouch near Nikki's shoulder and rushed to Moreau's side. "If your creation fails, the energy beam could malfunction and blast a hole straight through it. And considering that this warehouse isn't entirely sturdy after years of neglect…well, let's not imagine the smashing scenario that would follow."

Moreau shot an angry glare at the man-wolf. "'If your creation fails?' Plato, are you doubting my ability to make inventions that function properly?"

"Of course not. I just thought you'd prefer not to risk bringing the place down upon us. After all, we wouldn't want to call attention to ourselves by demolishing an entire building, correct?"

The doctor kept his stony glare affixed to Plato for a few passing moments. Finally, he smiled. "I suppose that's one of the reasons why I'm glad you came to me, Plato: No matter what the situation entails, you remain rational in the face of it." He lowered the silver rifle. "All right, where do you suggest we set up our portal?"

"The mirror could serve as a good doorway, perhaps?" Plato motioned towards a full-length mirror propped against the wall. A jagged crack ran down the center of the glass, yet the two large shards remained in place thanks to the splintered wooden frame holding them together.

At the sound of the word 'mirror,' Nikki's lilac ears perked up from the folds of her golden hair. "You'd better not be thinking about blasting that rifle at my mirror!" she snapped over her shoulder. "You know how long I had to go through those busted buildings before I found one? How else am I gonna check myself out after getting an upgrade?"

"Nikki, this is in the name of science," Moreau rolled his eyes. "Put aside your vanity so that it, and all of humanity, can progress to new heights."

Growling, Nikki looked back at the computer and propped her head up in her left hand. "If you smash it, you totally owe me a new one," she muttered before turning her focus in its entirety back to her search.

Dr. Moreau turned and cocked his shimmering rifle at the cracked sheet of glass. He and his reflection flashed triumphant grins at one another. "If this works, all we have to do is find that portal to Ciela, and victory at bringing humanity to its greatest height will be mine."

Plato stepped back as Moreau pulled the trigger. The dome atop the rifle became enveloped in white light. The firearm's cool metal flared with magical warmth and shook under the doctor's fingertips as a shimmering ray shot out of its barrel and struck the center of the glass.

The reflective surface became enveloped in glaring light. From the point where the rifle's beam struck the mirror, an image reminiscent of a fairy-tale painting gradually spilled out and filled the frame. The image's centerpiece was a palace of shimmering white marble and tan-capped turrets, standing on the borderline between a range of dust-colored mountains and a lush, dark green forest with a river twisting amidst its trees. In the cerulean sky soared a flock of familiar golden dragons. Their snake-like bodies were sectioned off from their necks to their tails; jagged wings and thorns protruded from their bodies, and slits of scarlet eyes shone on the sides of their heads.

Moreau's eyes flashed with a grey gleam of triumph. _Curse of Dragon…_ He trembled with delight, his ray-gun's beam quivering around the mirror's center. _That's it…that's a portal! A portal to the realm of Duel Monsters! _Eagerly he stepped towards the image, holding out one hand before him in preparation to stroke its precious surface. His eyes remained wide open with hopes of a catching glimpse of another Duel Monster passing by.

Instead, they watched as violet light streaked across and marred the picturesque scene. The light gradually drew out a five-pointed star, then wrapped a perfect circle around the very tips of its points. Moreau recognized the symbol from a quick study of magic and mysticism he'd completed before attempting the feat of forming his fusion device. It was a neo-pagan, circumscribed pentagram.

"What the hell—"

Before the shimmering pentagram, the faint form of a familiar monster clad entirely in violet manifested, clutching an emerald and silver staff in one hand. The figure was strangely unphased by the beam of white light piercing its torso. Then again, Moreau realized, this wasn't the actual spirit of the Dark Magician hovering before him; it was a remnant of his spell he'd cast.

The ethereal figure lifted his staff and pointed its tip at Moreau's ray-gun. _"Oyu rea ont clomewe ni iths meral. Avele, dan mya vethawer othbrug oyu ereh eb noge!"_

What he spoke sounded like utter gibberish, but behind the words was apparently some profound command, for the ray of white energy shifted to a violet shade and retreated from the mirror. Moreau dropped the gun as though it had stung him moments before the shimmering light drew back into his rifle. The dome gleamed purple for a moment, then shattered in entirety, sending flecks of glass and sparks of magic flying across the dusty floor.

Dr. Moreau shook with rage as the violet glitter amidst the glass and dust faded away, taking the precious half of the magic previously held in his fusion device with it. He glanced up to snarl at the manifestation of the spell, but it had already faded away with the pentagram and the idyllic scene, leaving the doctor to snarl at his own reflection.

"Dammit…"

Plato opened his mouth, but Moreau twisted to face him before he could speak. "I am _not_ glad to receive 'I told you so' speeches, so keep your mouth shut."

Seeing that the doctor was clearly in no mood for a lecture, Plato snapped his mouth shut and chose to silently shake his head in reproach instead.

Moreau bent down and picked up the silver rifle from the floor, now a useless bundle of metal. "So close…" Moreau snarled through clenched teeth. "I got so close…then I was stopped by some damn spell…"

"A-ha!" Moreau winced as Nikki's annoyingly triumphant voice cut through his quiet mourning for his creation. He shot a glare at his female underling as she twisted around in the swivel chair, the laptop clutched in her paws. She merely blinked at the sight of the doctor's stony face, then looked down at the ray-gun, a tiny stream of smoke rising from the place where the dome had been. "Test failed, huh?"

"Not. Another. Word."

"O-kaaay," Nikki drawled out, "but I just found some news that might lift your mood."

"There is nothing you could say that could make me feel better right now," Moreau snapped.

"You totally don't know that." Looking back at the computer, Nikki cleared her throat and began reciting in authoritative monotone the first news article she'd pulled up onto the screen: "'Onlookers in Southern California were treated to a rather startling display this afternoon. Though weather forecasts predicted clear skies all around, residents near a heavily guarded estate claim to have seen white bolts of lightning coming down from definitively blue skies. Rumors are now circulating about the estate in actuality being a government lab for testing top secret weaponry that can control the weather, but investigators deny any government affiliation with the estate, asserting that it's simply a private residence for folks who'd wish to remain unnamed.'"

Nikki looked back up at Moreau and Plato and grinned with a sing-song tone in her voice, "Now who do we know that's rich enough to own a private estate and most definitely now holds the power to shoot white lightning from outta nowhere?"

Moreau stared at her for a few passing moments. A flash of realization crossed his face. "So that's where Seto Kaiba fled to…?"

"But wait, there's more!" Nikki giggled as she clicked a second tab leading to another open article. "In other, seemingly unrelated news," she paraphrased the piece, "there's a rumor swirling around that two of the leading fixtures in the realm of Duel Monsters were seen with three others at the Domino Airport last night, chartering a private jet to fly to…" Nikki paused for dramatic effect before proclaiming, "Ca-_li_-fornia! Now obviously one of those two leading fixtures would be Seto Kaiba himself, but," Nikki tapped her chin in mock pondering, "who oh who could that second 'leading fixture' and those three others possibly be?"

A grin spread across the doctor's face, and he burst into fiendish laughter. "So, Seto Kaiba, you took Yugi Muto and his friends away before I could get to them. Quite clever of you, but unfortunately, your 'freakish' abilities have given you away."

Moreau continued to chortle to himself as he reached into one of his lab coat's pockets and pulled out a mahogany jewelry box. "I believe this lucky discovery calls for a celebration." He lifted up the hinged lid to reveal Duel Monster cards stuffed into the interior. "You were just talking about getting an upgrade, weren't you, Nikki?"

Squealing, Nikki dropped the laptop with a clatter and rushed up to the doctor. She held out her hands towards the box, fingers eagerly twitching with delight. "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

Plato blinked in surprise at the sight of the heap of playing cards before Nikki snatched them up in her paws and out of his sight. "Master, where did you get all of these cards?"

"When you're an employee of Kaiba Corp, you tend to get quite a few free samples of wares from Industrial Illusions, also known as the primary affiliate," Moreau shrugged. "I had no use for them when they were first given away, but I decided to save them, just in case I needed them someday."

"How excellent for us." Plato reached out and plucked a few cards from the open box. He began carefully looking through his selections, every so often kneeling down and picking up a card that had been tossed onto the floor, another option for his consideration. Nikki was simply flinging one Duel Monster after another out of the box, muttering to herself, "Weak, weak, fugly, weak…"

_Do choose well, you two,_ Moreau thought as he watched the two go through his collection. _As soon as you've been fused with another essence, we'll be taking a little trip. _His eyes narrowed. _I've only made the mistake of letting you and those four mistakes get away once, Seto Kaiba. I can assure you, it's not going to happen again…_


End file.
